


Leave the World Behind

by CorruptedRoyalty



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies)
Genre: Chubby, Chubby OC, F/M, Love/Hate, Welcome to the Jungle, plus size, plus size OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2020-06-05 15:58:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 53,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorruptedRoyalty/pseuds/CorruptedRoyalty
Summary: Jennifer Green knew she would hate Anthony “Fridge” Johnson until the end of time. But, being sucked into a video game can change everything you knew. (This story has both Welcome to The Jungle and The Next Level in it.)





	1. Chapter 1

My phone obnoxiously rings to wake me up for another boring day. I groan and reach for my phone to turn off my alarm. I roll out of bed and made my way to the bathroom for a quick shower, taking my toothbrush with me to do two things at once. 

I dried myself off with the towel before wrapping it around my body. I eyed my straighter as I brush my hair. I look at the clock on the wall and decide to leave it in its natural waves. I still had to go to Spencer’s and pull him off that new video game he got. 

I did my make up so light people wouldn’t even know I had any on. I went back in my room to drop the towel and put on a white matching underwear set. I [put](https://urstyle.com/styles/2186804) on a pair of ripped fitted jeans. I carefully put on a white lace up blouse that show a lot of cleavage, not wanting to get any makeup on it. I slip on some white sandals. I put on a necklace that had a ring on it that had don’t lie engraved in. Spencer had a matching one that had friend engraved on it. We were both obsessed with Stranger Things and we’re planning a sleepover to binge the new season when it comes out.

I grab my phone and match it up with my wireless black and blue cat ear headphone. I turn on Pandora. I slide my headphones on and put my phone in my back pocket. I grab my Mushu backpack and head out the door. I walk along the streets by myself since my older sister started college. 

I pull headphone, so they were around my neck and I turn the music off as I walk up the driveway of my best friend's house. Being that I’ve been coming to this house every morning since I start walking to school, I walk right in. 

“Hi Ms. Gilpin,” I greet my friend’s mom who was rushing past me. 

“Morning Jennifer, can you remind Spencer about his EpiPen and to text me if he’s going to his dad after school. I’m running late to work.” She looks through her purse and let out a sigh of relief when she pulls out her keys.

“Will do,” I heard a thank you and a door slam as I made my way up the stairs. 

I knock on his door, you can never be too careful with a teenage boy. “Decent!” He yells out. 

I walk in to see him playing video games. “Seriously Spence, turn it off we got to go.” I roll my eyes. The boy woke up with barely enough time to get ready for school and he was playing video games.

“Bye guys, mom said I got to go to school.” He snickered into his headset. I glare at him as he turns off his play station.

“Your mom said to text her if you’re going to your dad.” I emphasize your mom.

He nods his head as he took out of phone to text her. I grabbed his backpack and an EpiPen from his desk drawer to put it inside. “Can you grab the essay on top of the printer too?” He asks.

As I did what he asks I saw the name on the top corner, Anthony Johnson. “I thought you were going to stop tutoring the Fridge?” I put air quotation around tutor and spat out his nickname. Just thinking about him made my blood boil.

“I don’t know why you’re so mad. You’re not the one doing it.” He grabs the essay and backpack from me. He gently put the papers inside, not wanting to rip or ruin it in any way. 

“He ditches us, Spencer. He treats us like we're his dirty little secret. The fact that you have to meet him at the freak house to give him the homework that you did for him shows how he sees us. Yet, you treat him like he’s still your best friend.” I rant as I fantasize about ripping that essay of his up. 

“You can hold a grudge if you want to, but I’m not going to.” He slid his yellow raincoat and then backpack on. 

I took a deep breathes as I follow him out the house. I had to remind myself that he didn’t know the whole story between Anthony and me. He didn’t know what really happened that summer. 

It was the summer before we went to high school. Spencer was away at some science camp. Anthony was going to football practice Monday through Friday, but we hang out every night and weekend. 

One night, while watching reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. he leaned over and kissed me. I was so shocked. I mean, I notice how he stares at my curves that were just developing at the time, but he never said anything. I figure he would flirt with me first, not go right for the kiss.

I was attracted to him. I couldn’t deny that puberty had been very good to him. The way that he shot up and the muscle he gained from his football coach making him weight lift. I remember how I tried to recall my older sister’s kissing tips, but I was only half listening to her since at the time the advice was unwanted. 

That first kiss was exciting, but shitty. We were both so inexperienced. By the end of summer we were both skilled at kissing and other things, everything. If I just thinking about that summer and not the aftermath of it I still get a warm feeling and I hate it: all the dates, holding hands, kissing, pet names, and the sex. My god, all the sex that we had, I hate that I haven’t had anyone since. If the different girls on his arms were an indicator then he’s had more than he can count. 

We agree that we would tell Spencer about us on the first day of high school. That's why I was surprised that when we got to his house and his mom said he left already. I was crushed when we got to school and he made like he didn’t know us. It took everything in me not to cry right there. I fell apart when I got home. 

The first feeling of rage I had for him was when he texted me that night, asking if I could come over. I told him that if he wasn’t going to acknowledge me in front of his new friends, than to forget about me and he did. It was then I had to accept that he was no longer my Anthony, he was Fridge, the popular jock that all the girls wanted to get with and the boys wanted to be. 

It was both frustrating and depressing to watch how happy Spencer is with any attention that Fridge gives him. He was bouncing up and down in glee when he told me that Fridge came up to him to ask him to do his homework. As a response I smack him upside the head. 

We stop in front of the freak house. “Can you believe it Georgie, first you do his homework and now we have to wait on him?” I scoff as we look up at the house. 

“What did you call me?” Spencer narrows his eyes at me. 

“You just be lucky we don’t live in Derry, Pennywise would think you look like a snack in that jacket.” I tug the hood off his head.

“Yo,” Fridge walks up to us. His eyes flick to me but after seeing my glare, he focuses on Spence. 

“Hey, Fridge,” He smiles at our ex friend, making me shake my head. 

“Why are you wearing a raincoat?” He looks at the yellow jacket in confusion. 

“Waiting for Penny,” I comment. I staring up at the house, so I miss the weird look Fridge gave me and the annoyed look Spence did. If we had a Pennywise, this would be his house. Thinking about that made me turn to the boys hoping they’d hurry up.

“What do you mean?” He looked down at his choice of clothing. 

“I mean, it's not raining.” Fridge looks up at the sky to make his point. 

“Oh, well, it might. I mean, you never know what's going to happen.” He shrugs. I snicker that was his mom talking, not him. A squirrel squeak making Spencer jump and scream out in fright, causing Fridge to jump. “Oy vey,” He put a hand on his chest. 

“What the hell, man?” Fridge glares at the smaller male for scaring him. 

“Do you mind? Can we speed this up? Freak House makes me very uncomfortable. Here you go.” He opens his bag to grab the essay from it. I bite my lip to stop from laughing, because I knew it wasn’t the house, it was the squirrel. 

“You proofread everything?” He glanced over the papers. I scoff the nerve of this guy.

“Yeah, I proof it. And I gave it a beginning and an ending and s-some in the middle.” He plays with the straps of his bag.

“I would've done it myself, if I had the time or whatever, but...” He tried to come up with an excuse. But, we know football didn’t take up that much of his time, it was dating and partying that did.

“Yeah, it's no big deal.” He shrugs, playing it off like he didn’t have anything better to do. “Hey, man, I was thinking, so… I mean, it's been really fun, doing your papers and your homework and stuff, but I don't know what you're doing this weekend. I was thinking maybe we could...” Spencer rambles on in his unique awkward way. No matter how many times I saw him like this it always made me cringe. I felt the pain from here. 

“This weekend, yeah, ah...” Fridge was looking anywhere but at him. I was about to snap on him when a car pull up next to us. 

“Hey, Fridge,” A beautiful cheerleader called out to him. 

“Hey...” He smiles at her. I roll my eyes. I bet all the money I had in the bank that he didn’t know her name. 

“You need a ride?” She made sure to only keep eye contact with him.

“I'm going with her.” He told us with no hesitance.

“Good.” I snap.

“You know what? That's actually better for me, scheduling-wise, too, so…” He was saying when he realizes the jock was already walking away from him. “See you later, Refrigerator.” He wave making him turn back to give him a look. “Sorry. Sorry.” He apologizes. 

“Whatever. It's not like I was your best friend for your entire childhood. That's fine.” He talks under his breath as Fridge got in the car and they drove off.

“Oh, now you see my point?” I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What'd you say?” A growl came from behind us made us whip around to see an old man standing there. 

“Uh, nothing, sir,” Spence said after the shock wore off. 

“What are you guys doing out here?” He looks us up and down. 

“We were just talking to a friend.” He told him. 

“His friend,” I corrected him. 

“You should be more careful where you loiter, you hear me?” He steps towards us, making us take a step back. I wasn’t sure if he was warning us of the dangers of the world or threatening us.

“Yes, Mr. Vreeke. I hear you.” I nod as I pull Spence more back. I didn’t want either of us to be in reaching distance of this guy. 

“This world swallows up kids like you.” He stares at Spencer. We nod our head in acknowledgement and ran off.

“No more favors for Refrigerator.” I punch him in the arm when we got to the front of Brantford High School. “I’m not wearing the right bra to be running today.” I adjust my boobs. 

“Woah,” I look up to see Fussfeld stare at my chest. 

“Get your friend, Spence.” I told him as I brush past the gawking boy to get to class. 


	2. Detention

I was leaning back in my chair, having finished my geometry quiz. 

“It's been over two hours since I've posted, and he hasn't commented. He hasn't even liked it. You saw it.” Bethany, a popular girl in school, whine next to me as she face time someone. She and I was classroom friend. We talk and were friendly while we were inside this class, but outside we made like we didn’t know each other. It was a mutual understand consider we ran in different social groups, me with the nerds and her with the in crowd. Since Fussfeld had a huge crush on her, I was happy to make like I didn’t know her. I didn’t need him bothering me for information on her.

She was actually pleasant to talk to if you kept the topic off her. But, since she was obsessed with herself it was a difficult task that I only accomplish two times before. I’ve been sitting next to her all year. 

“Yeah, gorge. I don't know what his problem is.” By the nasally voice I assume that was Lucinda, her best friend. 

“Thank you. It's not like I post all the time, just enough to stay relevant. But it's cute enough for Noah to…” She smiles, happy that her friend saw her point.

“Hey, there's some rando behind you.” She cut her off.

“Hi.” She turns around to smiles at Mrs. Clark.

“Hi.” The teacher said sarcastically back. “Bethany, did you just make a call during a quiz?” 

“Yeah, but I finished my quiz already.” She shrugs like it was no big deal.

“Oh, okay. Well, have you noticed that other people haven't?” She glares at the teenager.

“So?” She looks genuinely confused. I shook my head, I couldn’t tell if she was really that clueless or just inconsiderate.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Let me backup. You're aware there are other people in the world, right?” Mrs. Clark got fed up with her princess attitude. She had the decency to look a little ashamed, while the students around us chuckled.

“Look, um, you know, I'm dealing with something right now, and I'm no happier about it than you are. I'm having a crisis and Lucinda, I mean, she's supporting me as a woman, and it feels like maybe you should too.” She tried to get the teacher on her side. But, even Lucinda was raising an eyebrow at the sad attempt. An ex boyfriend not liking a picture is not what I would call a crisis.

“Just hang up the phone.” Mrs. Clark waves her hand, wanting to be done with the girl. 

“Okay, I'll wrap it up.” She nods her head, going back to her phone. 

“Bethany, hang it up now.” She hisses. If Bethany wasn’t such a spoiled brat she would see that Mrs. Clark was giving her a second chance. 

“Two minutes and we're done.” She told her like she was the authority figure with the last say.

“And that's detention.” She smiles, happy to take her down a peg. Everyone else including myself was snickering at the girl’s misery. 

* * *

I was in my last class of the day, biology. Mr. Walker was talking about the different parts of a cell when I felt two hands reach around me to grab my tits. “Damn girl, why do you hang around with that nerd when you got a rack like this?” Jason, a linebacker that had more muscles then brains licked my ear. 

I ball up my fist and whip around to punch him in the nose. He screams and let me go to hold his nose that was gushing out blood.

Mr. Walker ran over to check on the jock. “Ms. Green, detention.” He points a finger at me. 

“He grabbed my tits. He deserved to get one too.” I stood up from my seat. 

“I didn’t.” He cried. 

“You fucking liar!” I move to get to him, but Mr. Walker was quick to get in between us. 

“Ms. Green stops acting like an animal. He said he didn’t do it. I didn’t see him do it. Did anyone see him?” He addresses the class. Everyone all of sudden came interested in reading their textbooks. He motioned for me to follow him as he walked over to his desk to grab a detention slip. He fills it out and signs it before handing it over to me. “Go to the office right now.” He points to the door. 

I went back to my desk. “I said office now!” He yells at my back.

“I have to get my bag.” I yelled over my shoulder, shutting him up. It was humiliating to feel all these judgmental eyes on me as I shove my things inside my bag before throwing it over my shoulder. I stomp to the door. “Fuck this class!” I yell while I slam the door on my way out. 

I throw open the office door to give my slip to the office lady. “You can sit over there with the other delinquents.” She points to the chairs against the window. I knew I would be with Bethany, but I was surprised to see Martha, a girl Spencer had a crush on, Spencer, and Fridge there. 

I took the only seat left that was in between Fridge and Spencer. “What happened?” I whisper to my friend. 

“Look. I'm sorry, okay?” He looks past me to our old friend. 

“No, no, it's not okay. What the hell, man? You got me kicked off the team.” He snaps. 

“Yeah, well, you could've gotten me expelled. It's not like you're the only one who's living dangerously.” He spat back on him. If I wasn’t trying to piece together what happened I would have pats him on the back for finally standing up for himself.

“Living dangerously?” I lean back as Fridge lean across to hiss at him. 

“Yes. This is the most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life and now look at me. I'm paying the price.” He leaned across to make his point that he was suffering also. They both let out a sigh and face forward.

I tug on Spencer’s sleeve to remind him I was still there. “I may have recycled an old history essay.” He whispers to me. 

“But you have the same history teacher.” I point out to him. There was no way she wouldn’t notice that she read the same essay in the same year. 

“Exactly,” Fridge glare at him. 

“No exactly, you should have done your own essay.” I turn towards him to correct him.

“He shouldn’t have said he was going to do it, if he wasn’t going to.” He points at Spencer.

“Please, you knew he wouldn’t be able to say no that’s why you ask him.” I snob him, turning back to Spencer who eyes were darting back and forth between us. 

“How come you’re here?” Spence asks me in his gentle manner. 

“Yeah, what the hell did you do?” Fridge nods in agreement, wanting to know.

“Enough talking,” The office lady snaps at us. We sat in silence waiting for detention to start. 

* * *

The bell rang. The principal came out and lean against the office desk. “Well… isn't this a fun group? Welcome to detention. Yes, Spencer?” He addresses the teenager raising his hand.

“I want to say that I'm sorry.” He said. I was going to make him an unnecessary I’m sorry jar.

“Thank you.” Bentley gave him a nod.

“Principle Bentley, all I did was make...” Bethany tried to reason, but he cut her off to my disappointment. I was hoping to hear how she was going to spin it. 

“Bethany, please. You're all here for a reason. You know what it is. But, this is what you should be thinking about: Who you are in this moment in time, and who you want to be. You get one life. You decide how you're going to spend it. Fortunately, there is no better place for self-reflection than detention. Get up, everybody. Let's go.” He nods his head towards the door as he got up. Spencer, my sad best friend, pop up quickly to follow him out as the rest of us drag ourselves after them. 

He led us to a classroom that was always locked. He opens it and switch on the light. I step in the room to see that they have been using it for storage. “We are turning this into a new computer center. But before we do, it has to be cleaned out. These old magazines are bound for the recycling plant. But, they have to be prepped before they go. It seems all the staples must be removed. Whatever you don't finish today, you finish tomorrow.” He explains our task. It sounds simple, but seeing huge pile of magazine show that it wasn’t.

“Tomorrow's Saturday,” Fridge told the man like he didn’t know the days of the week. 

“Because I wouldn't play?” Martha scoffs.

“I don't think that'll work.” Bethany shook her head. 

“Why can’t we do it on Monday?” I tried to reason. 

“That's fair.” Spence nod his head. 

“Shut up.” Fridge pulls him back by his backpack.

“If you don’t want to be here tomorrow, I suggest you get started. Choose your weapons.” He held out a basket of stapler remover. 

“Damn you Bentley, I love your dry sense of humor.” I took one from him. After we all had one, he left us to our work. Martha, Spencer, and I started removing staples. Fridge was wandering around while Bethany sat there on her phone. 

“What the hell do they need with a bowling ball?” Fridge held it up.

Bethany let out a loud groan as she held her phone in the air, “Seriously, no reception? Okay, can my today get any worse?” She whines. 

“Are you going to help? Or are you too pretty?” Martha turns to snap at her.

“I'm too pretty.” She said smugly. 

“You’re really not, so you better get the hell up or I’m going to make you.” I took a threatening step towards the girl. 

“I would listen to her if I were you. I’ve seen her make people double her size do what she wants.” Spencer warns her. She meets my glare and let out a groan. She stood up and grabs a few magazines before sitting back down. 

“Hey. I was watching you with Coach Web today. I wasn't watching you. I was but not, like, in a weird way. I just…” Spencer tried to talk to Martha. 

I took my magazine and move to behind the shelves not wanting to by that awkward mess. But, that meant I was by Fridge. “I don’t know what worst having to listen to him attempt to talk to her or you.” I side eyes him as he snoop through another box.

“Oh, so now you want to have a civil conversation with me.” He mockingly points at his chest. 

“I figured it was okay, since none of your friends are around.” I look around as if I was checking to make sure.

“Well, look like your boy isn’t doing too bad.” He nodded over to Spencer who actually had Martha blushing and smiling at him. 

“They’re so cute together.” I join my hands together to make a heart shape and put it around them. 

“Yeah, I can see that.” Fridge put his hands on my hips and his head on my shoulder to look through my hand shaped heart. 

I felt my breath cut short as I was about to become a blubbering mess like Spence. “D-Did you look in that box?” I clear my throat to speak and points over to a box labeled donate. “You probably could take something from there and no one would care.” 

“No, not yet,” He went over to look in it. “Yo. What's this?” He pulls out some type of game console. We look over at Spencer figuring this was his area of expertise. 

“I don't know.” He came over to us.

“What is it like some type of old-school Nintendo or something?” He moves it around to get a better look at it.

“I don't think so. I don't recognize it.” He took it from him.

“Maybe I student built it.” I suggested. I look around the room, figuring a storage area would have those TVs that teacher roll into the classroom. “Hey guys.” I point to what I was looking for. My heart drowned in nostalgia as the three of us share a look of mischief. 

Fridge and I watch as Spencer hooks it up to the TV. It went from static to a clear picture. It was leaves with a circle in the middle, “A game for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind, Jumanji.” Spencer read off the screen.

“Staples, people. Staples.” Martha squeezes her staple remover at us.

“Jumanji? What does that mean?” Fridge turns to Spencer, looking once again for his expertise.

“I have no idea. Never heard of it,” He stared at the screen in wonder. 

It changes to a select your character screen. “Oh, my favorite part,” I snatch a controller up. I love gaining a favorite character. 

“Uh, which one do I pick?” Fridge asked, picking up a controller.

“I don't know. I don't think it matters that much.” He shrugs

“Yes, it does. Don’t listen to him. He says that to trick you so he can get all the good ones.” I warn him. He did that to me when we were playing Mortal Kombat.

“It wasn’t about the character you picked, I’m just better than you.” He teases me. As a response, I stuck my tongue out at him. “Jefferson 'Seaplane' McDonough, pilot and rascal,” He read the one that Fridge was on. 

“It's not working.” He pushes the button to select the character but nothing happened. 

“Okay, try another one.” Spence suggested. “Franklin 'Moose' Finbar,” He read the next one he landed on.

“He sounds like a badass.” He nods his head in approval.

“And he's a zoology expert, which is awesome.” Spence said in excitement making Fridge shot him a look, not believing how nerdy he was sometimes. The game chimes as he select his character.

“You pick.” Fridge nods to him.

“No, I want to go before Spence.” I glare at the boy who had the advantage. 

“Go head.” He nods. 

I read through the character choices. “Oh, Cutthroat Connie, that a name I can get behind.” I select the assassin, making the game chime. “Now you may go.” I told him. 

Spence grab a control and read his pick out loud. “Dr. Smolder Bravestone.” 

“Bethany, you in?” Fridge asks the girl that was standing behind us. 

“Fine” She sighs as she grabs a controller. “I'll be Shelly Oberon, the curvy genius.” She smirks at her character description. 

“Hey, yo, Staples come on. It's your turn.” Fridge look back at the girl who was still remove the staples from the magazines.

“Uh, no. No thanks.” She shook her head.

“Wait, just for a few minutes?” Spence pleads with her. 

“Come on, Martha. It’ll be fun.” I smile at her. 

“She's not big on fun.” Bethany snickers at the thought of Martha being jolly. 

“Okay. Fine,” She glares at the girl’s back and put down the magazine to grab a controller. 

“This may be the lamest thing I've ever done.” Bethany let out another sigh.

“I highly doubt that.” Martha said causing the blonde to glare at her.

“I think I found a female friend.” I leaned over to whisper to Spence. He smiles at me. He too hoped the girl would be in our lives more. 

After Martha select Ruby Roundhouse, killer of men, the game chime again followed by a jaguar roar and elephant noise. “Welcome to Jumanji!” A man voices came from the TV.

“Such sad graphic,” I laugh at the old graphics. I frown as the drums started to beat, but it wasn’t coming from the TV. It sound like it was going on around us. There was no way this room had surround sound. The games light glows a bright green. 

“What's going on?” Bethany asked as the monkey shrieking came from outside. 

The console start to crackle and sparks flew from it. “I think it's shorting out.” Spence went over to try and fix it. 

“Be careful Spence.” I order as I grab onto Fridge’s arm, scared. The more he touched the box, the more sparks flew out of it. 

“Unplug it!” Martha screams, watching on in fear. 

Spencer did that, but it only seemed to make the game angrier. The plug itself was sparking and a green light pushes him back. 

“Whoa,” Fridge move back and push me behind him. We scream as the console shook. 

“What's going on?” Martha looks around at us. 

“What's happening to your hands?” I watch in horror as Spencer started to disappear in front of me. 

“What's wrong with you?” Bethany stares with wide eyes. 

“I don't know.” He said before the green light completely took him. 

“Spencer!” I ran over to trying to grab him. But, when I got there it was too late he was gone. I began to cry as everyone screams around me. 

“Baby girl it's taking you too!” Fridge yells. I look up to see the green light surround me, sucking me into the console. 


	3. Welcome to The Jungle

I scream as I free fall from the sky. “Fuck No!” I yell as my body hit the forest ground. I groan, getting up. I was in a little pain, but nothing felt broken. How was that possible? 

I let out another scream as I look down at myself. Instead of seeing my normal chubby body, I saw a thin fit one. I was [wearing](https://urstyle.com/styles/2186865) a camouflage mesh crop top with a white sport bra underneath it. I had on black cargo shorts that end right after my ass. The vintage thigh holster that I had on went further down my thighs then the shorts. I had a gun on each of my hips and throwing knives wrap around my thighs. I noticed there was a small purse attached to the hostler. I open it up to see ninja stars. The only sensible about this outfit was the black hiking boots. 

“I think I’m Cutthroat Connie.” I whisper to myself, in disbelief that I got caught in this damn game. 

“Who are you?” A male high pitch voice yells at me. I look up to see a man standing in front of me. He was tall, dark, and handsome. He was dressed properly for the jungle with cargo pants, a gun holster, and a full shirt. 

“I do not giving my name to strange man, even if I’m in a stranger’s body. Even, if it’s my dream body.” I felt myself to hyperventilate. 

“Jenny?” He tilts his head to the side and whine out my name in a familiar panic tone. 

“Spencer?” I tilt my head in the same manner. He nods his head. I ran over and throw my arms around him. “Thank god, if I have to be trapped in a video game it's with you.” I smiles up at him. He let out a scream when a bird flies over us. “I think we both got our dream bodies.” I laugh squeezing his biceps.

Two more people fell out of the sky. The small male got up, looking around the forest. He had on cargo shorts, vest over a shirt, with a bucket hat, and red bandana around his neck. He had a huge backpack on that look to weigh the same amount as him. “ What kind of stupid-ass..? ” His question died on his lips when he saw us. “Who are you two?” He pointed at both of us. 

“ Who are you? ” Spence points back. I wonder if it was another one of us or a computer player.

“ Who is she? ” I point to the redhead who finally got off the ground. She was wearing light green cargo shorts like mine with a belt, maroon crop top with a leather holster, and some thigh high boots I would not mine borrowing. 

“ Who are you guys? Huh? ” She glares at all of us.

“ Okay, what the hell? ” The man with the backpack moves forward to get pummeled by another person falling out of the sky. 

“ Oh my God, I am suing! What's wrong with my voice? Where am I? ” The chubby old man panics on top of the smaller man who was squirming and demanding that he get off of him. 

“ You're crushing me! Get off! ” Backpack yelling finally got through to the man. They were both able to stand up. The short man starts to look at himself and began to freak out. “ What the hell? What happened to the rest of me? What is this? What is this on my back? What is this? Oh my God, ” Instead of taking off the backpack to look at it, he ran around in a circle like a dog chasing his tail. 

Spence and I share a look before turning back to the man. “ Fridge? ” He narrowed his eyes at him.

“Yeah, I'm Fridge. Who are you? ” He questioned the man in his normal alpha dog tone.

He looked around at the rest of us connecting the dots together. “ I'm Spencer. ” He whispers, but we heard him.

“ What? The hell you are. What is going on? Huh? ” He glared at the man, tired of being fucked with. 

“ I think we're in the game. ” I look around the jungle which I’m guessing was Jumanji. 

“ Sorry, excuse me? ” Fridge asks, hoping he heard wrong.

“ What are you talking about? ” Martha or Bethany move forward to ask.

“ Somehow, I don't know how… I think we got, like sucked into the game. And we've become the avatars that we chose. So it's me, Spencer, but yet I look and sound like Dr. Smolder Bravestone. ” Spencer explains his theory of what was going on. It was a scary thought, but I had to agree with him.

“ You're telling me that you're Spencer? ” Fridge said in a high squeaky voice.

“ Yes, yes, yes. That's it. Fridge, I'm Spencer. Which means you're Moose Finbar, it says it right there on your vest. ” Spence points to the nametag. Fridge and I look down at his vest to see it right there.

“ And Martha? ” He points to the girl in the maroon top. 

“Yeah,” She answers in a shaky voice. 

“ You're Ruby Roundhouse. And, Bethany, you're Professor Shelly Oberon. Only Shelly must be short for Sheldon. ” He points from Martha to Bethany, who looked up finally noticing the rest of us.

“ What are you talking about? ” She waved her hands about. I realize my eyebrows, did she not notice her voice and clothes were that of a males. 

“That makes you, Jenny.” Fridge points at me. 

“Yes, I’ll be playing as Cutthroat Connie.” I put a hand over my speeding heart.

“ Oh, my God. Oh, my God, he's right. ” Martha pulls at her hair.

“ And you...you're Spencer? You? ” Bethany points at Spence having a hard time believing him. 

“ Yes. Guys, I'm telling you. I am Spencer. I'm... Aah! ” He let out another scream at having a bird squawk somewhere around us.

“ Yep, that's Spencer. ” Fridge confirms it.

“ So that means I… I'm... ” Bethany point at her new form then ran to the river to look at her reflection. 

“ Wait, Bethany. ” Fridge calls for her.

“ Bethany, don't! ” I warn her. We did not need her having a freak out.

“ No! ” She screams looking at herself before turning back to us. “ I'm an overweight, middle-aged man. ” She stares at us in shock.

“ I have a tattoo. My mom always said she'd kill me if I ever got a tattoo. ” Martha looks down at her arm. 

“ I have one too. Sometimes, ” Spencer looked down at his arm. I look down to see that I also had three thick black lines tattooed on me. 

“ Wait a second. Where's my phone? ” Bethany freak out as she pats herself down looking for it. 

“ Aah. Why am I wearing this outfit in a jungle? Tiny, little shorts and a leather halter top. I mean, what is this? ” She slaps a bug off her stomach. She tried to pull her shirt down. The guys turn to check her out.

“We definitely in a video game, it’s the only place women dress like this in a jungle. I’m basically in my underwear.” I pull down on my short to find like Martha’s shirt it didn’t budge at all.

“ I look like a living garden gnome. Where is my phone? ” Bethany continues her search by looking to see if she dropped it on the ground.

“ Who cares? ” Fridge yells at her. 

“ We are in different bodies! ” I point out that we had a bigger problem.

“ It doesn't seem like the most pressing concern at this moment. ” Spence put it to her nicely. 

“ Really? You don't think this would be a good moment to make a call or text somebody or change your status to stuck in a video game? ” She screams. 

“ All I'm saying is I don't have my Claritin, okay? And I'm allergic to almost everything. ” He looked around in paranoia that something was going to jump out at him.

“ Oh no, you got allergies, Spencer? Huh? I don't have the top two feet of my body! ” Fridge reaches over his head to emphasize what he was missing. 

“Spencer, I don’t think Dr. Bravestone has any allergy so you should be fine. I’ve been short my whole life, it’s not that bad Fridge.” I roll my eyes at everyone priorities. But, then again I quite like this body. It was my dream body and I didn’t even have to work for it. 

“ You guys, this can't actually be happening. Maybe we're all in a coma. ” Bethany said, hoping that this wasn’t reality.

“ Together? We're all in a coma together? ” Martha shut down her explanation.

“ It's the only explanation. That old game machine must have electrocuted us, and now we're…. ” Bethany didn’t get to finish her sentence because a giant hippo came up from behind her and eat her. We scream as the hippo shakes it head tearing Bethany to pieces. Then like nothing the hippo sunk back into the water leaving only the hat she was wearing behind. 

“ Oh, my God! You better get in there and go save her. ” Fridge turns to Spencer.

“ I'm not getting in there! You get in. ” He shook his head. I had no idea why they were arguing there was no saving her. We saw it rip her body apart.

“ I'm not going anywhere. I got a backpack on. You don't get in water with a backpack. Everybody knows that. ” Fridge pulls on his backpack straps.

“Oh my god, we can die in this game.” I ran a hand through Connie’s blonde hair to find that it was up in a high ponytail. I had two loose pieces of hair hanging on each side of my face. 

A chime came from the sky and Bethany fell out of it all over again. We ran over to check on her.

“ Are you okay? ” Martha asks her. I looked her over to see she looks fine, she was still a middle age man but there wasn’t a scratch on her.

“ That was so intense. I, like, can't even with this place. ” She shook her head. I hope this was one of the games with unlimited lives.

“ What just happened to you? ” Fridge asks her.

“ I got eaten by a rhino and then I fell, like, a thousand feet from the sky. ” She explains. 

“ Yeah, that's what it looked like. ” Spencer nods his head.

“ That was a hippo. They're omnivorous. They're fast as a horse over short distances, and they have the bite force of 8100 Newton’s. How do I know this? ” Fridge starts panicking at the random knowledge in his head.

“ You're an expert in zoology. ” I remind him.

“ What? ” He stares at me to go on.

“We can take on the traits of our character, that's good. Because, I don’t know how to use these knives but Connie must.” I pull out a knife from the holster. On autopilot, I swirl it around and throw it at a tree, nailing a falling leaf to it. “Wicked,” I smirk and went over to collect my knife. 

“ I'm still an old fat guy, right? ” Bethany looks up at them. 

“ I'm afraid so. ” Spence nod slowly to her.

“ Wait. Why is everybody okay with this? I mean, she fell out of the sky. ” Fridge began to freak out again. I roll my eyes, didn’t he get how video games work at all.

“ Um, guys? ” Martha points at the angry hippo that was charging at us. Spencer took off running. 

“ Bethany, get up. Bethany, get up. Get up! ” Fridge yells at her. After she did, we started running. Another hippo appears in front of us with its jaws wide open, making us change directions.

A jeep pulls in front of us, making us stop to prevent from getting run over. I turn back to look for the hippos that were chasing after us. The driver honks the horn. “ Ah! Dr. Bravestone! Welcome to Jumanji! ” He greets Spencer and the doors to the jeep burst open. “ Don't just stand there. In you go. ” He waved his hand for us to come on. We share a look not sure if this man was a friend or foe. 

The hippos roar behind us, making us run to the jeep. I made my way to the backseat to find that all the seats were taken. “Girl, just get in here.” Fridge pulls me on his lap. The jeep doors shut and the driver speeds off into the jungle.

“ Dr. Bravestone, famed archaeologist and international explorer, known across the seven continents for your courageous exploits. ” He looks over at Spencer. 

“Oh shit,” I hissed as we went over a bump. Fridge had to wrap his arms around my waist to stop me from hitting the Jeep’s roof. Now, I know one of the disadvantages to being thin, you’re easy to throw around. 

“ Is there a seat belt? ” Spencer looks around his seat of it. 

“ I can't tell you what an honor it is to finally meet you. I'm not embarrassed to say you're more dashing in person. ” The driver ignored his question to flirt with him. 

“ Um, thanks. ” He said, not sure how to take the compliment.

“ Who are you? ” Martha leans forward to ask him.

“Where are you taking us?” I lean back into Fridge, not feeling safe at all because this man was never looking where he was driving. 

“ Nigel Billingsly at your service, Ruby Roundhouse, killer of men, Cutthroat Connie, international assassin, welcome to Jumanji. I've been so anxious for your arrival. As you know,

Jumanji is in grave danger. We're counting on the six of you to lift the curse. ” He sort of answers our questions. I count us as five, why did he say six.

“ Curse? ” Fridge looks at the driver who was once again looking at Spencer. 

“ What curse? ” Spencer repeated the question. 

“ Excuse me. Have you seen my phone anywhere? ” Bethany move between the drivers and passenger seat to ask.

“You’re still on that.” I roll my eyes.

“ Professor Sheldon Oberon. Welcome to Jumanji. Nigel Billingsly at your service, I've been so anxious for your arrival. ” He nodded to Bethany before finally facing forward. 

“ What's with this guy? ” She whispered as she leaned back in her seat. 

“ I think he's an NPC. ” Spencer looks the man up and down. 

“ A what? English, please. ” Bethany narrows her eyes at him.

“ A non-player character, ” I answer, picking up some of the slang from hanging out with Spencer and his friends.

“ He's part of the game. So anything we ask him, he only has his programmed series of responses. ” Spencer further explains.

“ Got it, it all clear now. ” Fridge said sarcastically.

“ Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar, welcome to Jumanji, ” Nigel greeted him.

“ It's Moose. It's not Mouse. ” Fridge corrected him.

“ No, good sir, I'm quite sure it's Mouse. ” The driver smiles at him.

I turned around to get a better look at the nametag stitch on his shirts. “It says Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar.” I ran my fingers over it.

“ Mouse? ” Fridge pulls his shirt away from his body to read it better.

“Anthony, do you feel like a moose or a mouse right now? You’re a mini fridge.” I pinch his cheek. 

He slaps my hand away. “I swear, woman...” He didn’t get to finish his threaten because Nigel explain his nickname. 

“It’s a nickname given for your diminutive stature and adorable manner. I knew you'd be here. Dr. Bravestone doesn't go anywhere without his trusty sidekick. ” This man was handing him devastating news one after another.

“ Sidekick? ” He exclaims. 

“ Ever since Dr. Bravestone rescued you from the clutches of a warlord in the jungles of Peru, you've never left his side. ” He explains the back story.

“ Right, ” He scoffed, not liking the hand he was dealt.

“This is what happens when you think character choice means nothing.” I said smugly, causing him to pinch my side.

“ Can we go back to the curse thing? ” Spencer said in the high pitch tone meaning that he was freaking out. 

“ It's all documented in the letter I sent you. Perhaps you should read it aloud. ” The driver looked confused at Dr. Bravestone cluelessness.

“ I don't have a let... ” He stops talking when an envelope magically appears in his hand.

“Whoa,” Martah let out as we watched with wide eyes at what just happen. 

“ Right, uh… Dr. Bravestone, I am writing to you regarding the desperate situation… ” Spencer started to read the letter. “… in Jumanji. We need your help at once. ” As Nigel voice mixed with Spencer, a light took over my eyes and it was like I was somewhere else. Physically, I could feel that I was still in the jeep, but visual I wasn’t. I was in a different part of the forest as a dirt bike speed past me. Men were cutting down plants to make away for a big cargo truck. They went by like I weren’t there. 

“ Whoa... guys? ” Martha cried out. It let me know that I wasn’t the only one getting a vision. 

“ What the hell is going on? ” Fridge wraps his arms back around my waist and he squeezes me like I was a teddy bear. 

“ It's a cut scene. A lot of games have them. It's like a little movie to tell you the back story. ” Spence explain. I don’t know how he was so calm about this, I knew that too from watching him play the games, but it was still freaking me out.

“ My name is Nigel Billingsly, Jumanji’s field guide. I was hired by your former partner, now nemesis, Professor Russel Van Pelt to lead a fateful expedition. You see, Professor Van Pelt had come in search of the fabled Jaguar Shrine, resting place of the sacred jewel of Jumanji. As you know better than anyone, the jewel was his great obsession. And after years of research, he believed that he had discovered its whereabouts. ” He began to tell the story.

“ Could it be? Have I finally found it? ” A man stares up at a mountain that had a jaguar’s head carved in it. 

“ Van Pelt told me that he wanted to find the jewel in order to document it in his writings. ” He explains why he helped him as we watch the man climb up the mountain.

“ It's real! ” The man moves the vines to reveal a gem that was the jaguar's eye. 

“ What I did not know was that he intended to take the jewel for himself. ” Nigel said as Van use a pickaxe to dig out the gem. 

The gem gave off green waves of light that made the man holding it close his eyes. “ I found it. I found it! ” The man screams out as the sky turns gray and lightning strike down. 

“Legend tells that the Jaguar watches over Jumanji and anyone who dares to blind him will be consumed by a dark power. Van Pelt assumed dominion over all of Jumanji's creatures, possessing them, controlling them. And a terrible curse befell this once-placid land.” Nigel continues to narrate the story. Van was back on the ground, he opened his eyes to reveal that one of them was cloudy now. Rats ran to his feet as a vulture lands on his arm.

“ I begged him to put it back, but once he had it in his grasp, he could never let it go. So I waited till they slept that night, and I made my move. ” I watch as Nigel stole the gem from Van as he slept. He had to run when the vulture alerted the camp.

“ Bring me that jewel! And slaughter anyone who tries to stop you! ” Van yells to his man after firing a few rounds from his gun. 

I blink my eyes, getting used to my vision of the present coming back to me.

“ Right then, here you go. With the invaluable help of your associates, you must use your complimentary skills to return the jewel to the Jaguar's eye and lift the curse. I'm sure you'll want to get started right away. ” Nigel hand the gem over to a reluctant Spencer. 

“ Actually, I think... ” He tries to think of a way out of this. 

“ Good luck! The fate of Jumanji is in your hands. ” Nigel said, making the Jeep’s doors open. I gasp along with everyone else, shaking my head. I did not want to get out of this jeep. “ And remember the goal for you, I'll recite in verse: Return the jewel and lift the curse. If you wish to leave the game, you must save Jumanji and call out its name. Good luck! The fate of Jumanji is in your hands. And remember... ” The man began to repeat himself. Spencer looks between Nigel and the gem as he got out of the car. 

“ He's saying the same thing over. ” Fridge gave my hips a squeeze. I got out of the jeep with him following after me. The girls got out after as Nigel kept repeating himself.

“ It's okay. You can handle this. In real life, people love you. You can hook up with anyone you want. ” Bethany spoke to herself. 

“ Is that what you tell yourself when you're scared? ” Martha cocked her head at the self absorbed girl. 

“ Can you not judge me for two seconds? I split up with Noah, I turned into a guy, and I cannot find my phone. I am allowed to be upset. ” She broke down in tears. The girl really did amuse me, she didn’t add in that she’s stuck in a video game and has been eaten by a hippo.

“It alright, Bethany, I said the same thing to myself I just didn’t say it out loud. But, don’t worry we’re going to get out of here and you’ll have your model body back soon.” I rub the girl’s back. 

“Thank you Jennifer.” She hugs and buries her head into my shoulder as she cried. 

“ Dr. Bravestone, here's a map of Jumanji. You must go to the bazaar and find the missing piece. ” Nigel hand Spencer a map. 

“ The bazaar? ” He took the map. 

“ Missing piece of what? ” Martha tried to ask him. But it seems that the NPC was not program to answer that question. 

“ Cheerio! ” Nigel yells as he started the jeep back up. 

“ You can't give us a ride to the statue? ” Fridge throws his hands in the air.

“ And remember if you wish to leave the game, you must save Jumanji and call out its name! ” Nigel yells out the window as he drove off.

“ You want to, uh, put this in there? ” Spencer held out the gem to Fridge.

“ No. ” He shook his head, keeping his hands on the backpack straps.

“ Come on, you're the only one with a backpack, Fridge. If people are looking for that, we don’t want it out in the open. ” I glare at my stubborn ex from Bethany’s arms.

He let out a sigh as he took the gem from Spencer and shoves it in the backpack. “ So what? We have a map. So now we're supposed to go and find...? ” He trials off as he tried to remember where we had to go. 

“ The bazaar, I guess? ” Spencer shrugs.

“ So we return the jewel to the Jaguar statue, and then we go home. No problem. ” Martha said, making it sound easy. But, from watching Spencer play video games I knew it was going to be more complicated than that.

“ Why can't we just leave, stop the game, without doing all this stuff? ” Bethany finally let me out of her embrace to whine and stomp her feet. 

“ We have to finish the game. I think… I think we have to save Jumanji. ” Spencer said, before walking away to look off of the cliff. 

“ Damn, that is a man right there. ” Bethany said, checking out Dr. Bravestone. 

I chuckle as I walk over to my best friend. “ Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. ” He was whispering to himself. I smirk, knowing this was why he moving away from the group to have a mini freak out. He slaps a mosquito that lands on his neck. “ Ah...There are so many diseases out here. It's hot. ” He whines.

I grab his hand and smile up at him. “Come on Spencer, this is your element. You got this.” I pull him back over to the group. 

“You’re right.” He nods his head and leads us somewhere. “ Okay, this is what I'm good at. Playing video games. It's what I do. It's literally the main thing that I do. Play a game like this, there'll be levels. In order to finish, you have to complete all the levels. Levels are going to get harder as we go along. We complete the levels... ” I couldn’t tell if he was informing us how a game works or if he was ranting to himself.

“ Do you even know where we're going? ” Fridge stops, not wanting to take another step until Spencer gave him some answers. 

“ Kind of, ” Spence shrugs.

“ Kind of? Oh, that's good, then. We're in good hands. ” Fridge looks in disbelief at his childhood friend.

“Where is the damn map, Spencer?” I snap. I thought he knew where he was going. 

“ Okay, the missing piece, I'm guessing. ” He opens up the map, to reveal that a piece was ripped off.

“ That must be what we're looking for, the missing piece of the map. ” Martha points it out.

“ The problem is there's nothing here. ” Spence turn the map around to see if he was looking at the wrong side. Bethany and I move to his side to see what he was going about. 

“I’m killing Nigel if I see him again.” I glare at the blank paper. 

“ What do you mean there’s nothing there? It's a map, just like he said. It's a map of Jumanji. ” She points at the paper. 

“ Cartography, ” Martha said in realization as she stares at Bethany. 

“ What's that? ” She asks us.

“ The study of maps, it was one of Professor Oberon's skills. ” I took the map from Spencer and gave it to her. 

“ Oh, so you can't see this, but I can? ” Bethany was surprisingly excited to be of use to others. 

“ The characters we choose, we all have certain skills. So there's got to be a way to access our... ” Spencer pats himself down, looking for a list or something. He pushes down on his chest making a green box pop up in the sky.

“ Oh! Wow. ” Us, girls gasp as we look up at the box floating in the air. 

“ What'd you just do? ”Fridge stares, not liking the unfamiliar. 

“ Strengths: fearless, climbing, speed, boomerang, smoldering intensity. ” Spencer read off his list. He said the last one confused and then made an intense face as he stares off into the distance.

“ What the hell are you doing? ” Fridge broke him from his trance.

“ What just happened? ” He looked at us confused. 

“ Um, you just smoldered. ” Bethany informed him.

While he still looked confused he read off the rest of his list, “ Weakness: none? ” 

“How did you get the list to pop up?” I ask him. 

“ Well, I think I just pressed my enormous left pec. ” He pushes it again making the list disappear.

“ It's like the boob area. Let me show you. ” Fridge reaches over to touch my chest.

“Paws off mouse, you don’t get to touch this anymore.” I slap his hand away from me. My eyes went wide when I realize what I said. I look around to see only Bethany caught on as she gave me a knowing look. Spencer and Martha were glaring at Fridge. 

“ At least press it in front of us so we know exactly how it works. ” He stares at my chest. 

To spite him I turn my back to him and push on my left breast, making a black box pop up with white writing. “My strengths are throwing knife, ninja stars, stamina, and speed. My weakness is animal fur. Well, that great in a jungle full of animals. There’s probable fur flying all around me.” I glare at my stats. “I wonder if I have any  Claritin. ” I open the small purse attached to the holster. “Nope, only ninja stars.” I groan. 

“I’ll do mine next.” Martha said.

“Wait, I’ll get you away from the perverted gaze.” I jump in front of her to block her from the male’s eyes. 

“Thanks.” She mutters. The game chimes and a red box pop up replacing mine. “ Strengths: karate, t'ai chi, aikido. Dance fighting? Dance fighting? Is that even a thing? Weakness: venom. ” She looks around to see if anyone knew what dance fighting was. I think I saw it in a Bob’s Burger episode once, but I had no idea if it was real or not.

The game chime again, we look over to see Bethany made her yellow box pop up. “ Seriously, paleontology, what does that even mean? ” She whines. Her strength was cartography, archaeology, and paleontology. Her weakness was endurance.

“ Study of fossils, I think. That's kind of cool. ” Martha tried to make her feel better about her skills.

“ Says the gorgeous karate badass to the old fossil guy who doesn't have any endurance, ” Bethany whines. From sitting next to Bethany in classes, I learned that a lot of the time she likes to wallow in self pity.

A pink box pops up after Fridge push down on his chest. We read his stats and they had to be the worst, he was the only one with more than one weakness. He strength were zoology and weapon valet. His weakness was cake, speed, and strength.

“ I hate this game. ” He grumbled to us.

“ Weakness: Cake. ” Martha read it in disbelief.

“It’s my weakness in real life, goes right to my hips and thighs.” I look up at his stats. 

“You say that like it’s a bad thing, big thighs save lives.” He bites his lip and rubs his hands together. I look away blushing, he used to do that all the time before when I would make little digs at myself, he always would turn it into a positive. It was one of the things I miss most about him. 

“ Quick question, how is strength my weakness? Somebody explain that to me. And why would I need speed? Why would I need to be fast when I'm being chased by an enormous killer zebra or some shit in this dumbass hat? ” Fridge went back to complain about his character. 

“ You're also a good weapons valet. ” Martha point out. 

“ What does that mean? ” Fridge asks her. We share a look saying that we had no idea.

“ Well, I think it means you carry my weapons in your backpack, and you give them to me when and if I need them? ” Spencer guessed. Fridge look so offended that he’s only use was that. 

“ You guys. The map, it's changing. ” Bethany stares down at the paper. 

“ What's it say? ” Spencer move to look down at the map, even though it would only appear blank to him. 

“ Okay, well, there's not a lot of information. But a minute ago, it didn't say this and now it does. It says, The Mighty Roar. ” Bethany points down at the map.


	4. Tensions Are Rising

After Bethany said the next place we need to go, drums started to beat. We look around to see where it was coming from. “I don't like that. I'm done.” Fridge shook his finger in the air, not wanting to deal with this anymore.

“What else?” Spencer turns back to Bethany.

“Okay. And right here, it says, From the Deep.” She points out somewhere else on the map.

“The hippo came from the deep. The one that...” He trailed off, not wanting to trigger the girl.

“Yes, the thing that did the thing. That's it. Moving on,” She waved her hand, saying it didn’t have to be mentioned.

“So if From the Deep is the first level, then The Mighty Roar must be the second level, which way?” He asks her.

“Okay. If that is that…. and that is here… Right here, I think.” She moves around with us following her.

A missile flies past, barely missing all of us. We look to see someone riding a dirt bike coming towards us. Then all of a sudden a bunch of them jump over a roll of high bushes barreling at us.

“What is this game?” Fridge yells. 

This time everyone took off running, but Spencer as we saw more in the distance. “Wait!” Spencer yells, but no one was willing to slow down for him. Missiles and bullets were flying past us as we ran. “Ha!” He laughs as he easily ran past us. I was able to stay on his tail with Martha behind me and Bethany behind her.

“Come on, legs! Why am I running so slow?” Fridge screams from the back of the pack. 

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Bethany looks back screaming. 

“Don’t look back.” I order. We ran into a forest. I hope it would slow the bikes down or at least make it harder to see us. 

“Aah! This sucks!” Bethany cried out of breath.

“Split up!” Spencer yells to us. He and Fridge ran one way, while we girls ran in different directions. 

“Why the fuck did I wander off by myself?” I berated myself as I kept running. I stop in my tracks as a bike appears in front of me. “Shit.” I cried when I saw there was one behind me. They were both speeding towards me. I look up to see a tree branch. I jump, pulling myself up on the branch making the two rider slam into each other. I look down to see the unmoving bodies. I took out my gun and shot them both in the back to be safe. 

“Stupid bastards,” I growl. I let out a scream as a monkey climbs up my arm and use my shoulder as leverage to get to a higher branch. “Stupid monkey,” I grumble. My arm started to burn, I look at it to see my arm covered in the monkey’s fur. “Oh fuck.” I watch as the rash and boils took over my whole body then I explode.

I scream as I fall from the sky and hit the ground. I got up when I heard an engine coming my way. I pull out one of the throwing knives and waited. When the guy was in sight, I channel my inner Cutthroat Connie and nail him right in the throat. I rush to grab the dirt bike before it crash. I turn it off and put on the kick stand. With three bodies in front of me, I looted them like I seen Spencer do in all his games. I was able to get 60 dollars off of them. I took a leather jacket off of one and put it on. I took a helmet off of another when I noticed he had an earpiece in. I took it from him; wipe it off on my short before putting it in my ear. 

“We got them surround on the cliff by the waterfall.” I heard a man’s voice say. I put on my helmet and throw one of their machine guns with a strap over my head, so the gun rest on my back. 

I thank my mom for letting me learn to ride a dirt bike when I was a kid. I climb on and drove toward the sound of rushing water. When I got there all I saw were dirt bikers looking over the cliff. I whip my machine gun around and blasted them. I got off my bike and look over the waterfall to see them swimming to shore. I took off the helmet and jump into the water. I swam to the shore. “That was the most humiliating moment of my life.” Fridge glares at Spencer. 

“What was?” I ask, ringing out my hair. 

“Where the hell were you?” Fridge put his hand on his hips as he questioned me. 

“I took in a lot of water.” Spencer held his stomach as Bethany lay down on a rock.

“They got me.” Martha moves her hand to reveal a bullet hit her chest. 

“Oh no,” I gasped, looking at her. From dying before I knew that you felt all the pain. 

“Martha?” Spencer looks at his crush with concern, right before she vanished.

“Wait, what just happened to her?” Fridge asks. 

“Is she dead? Did she die?” Bethany screech.

“Yeah, but she’ll come back. Same thing happens to me when I got monkey hair all over me.” I explain.

“I’m sorry, what was all over you?” Fridge look disgusted. 

“Wait a second.” Spencer put his hand up to silence us. The game chimes and rumbles. 

“What the hell is hap...?” Fridge yells. Martha fell out of the sky and land on top of him, making him fall face first into the ground. “Ow! Get off of my back!” He yelled as Martha use his back to stand up, pushing him more into the ground.

“Are you okay?” Spence asks.

“I think so.” She looks down at her chest to see the wound wasn’t there anymore. 

“Get off of me! Goodness gracious, get off!” Fridge grumble, trying to get up but couldn’t with her body weight.

“I'm getting off of you.” She stood up, rubbing her chest where the wound was as she stared up at the sky.

“Anybody care if I'm okay? What am I, a human landing pad?” He grumbled. 

“Oh come on, you’re a football player. You taken worst hit then that.” I smirk at him. He stares at me shocked that I was joking around with him so much. I don’t know why it still came naturally when I was with him, but it did. 

Spencer went over and grab Martha’s arm to look at her tattoo. “That's what I thought. We each have three lives, guys. These little tattoos on our arms… Jesus, would you look at the size of that thing?” He was starting to explain when he got distracted by his arm. 

“Spencer!” Fridge yells.

“What?” He looks up at him.

“You were saying?” He told him to continue his thought.

“It's our life count. Bethany got eaten by a hippo, so now she only has two lines.” Spence finish telling us what he figures out.

“He's right.” Bethany pulls up her sleeve to show us she only had two lines. 

I throw my machine gun down to tug off the leather jacket and through the fishnet sleeve I could see I only had two lines. “Shit, I only have two more lives. Fucking monkey!” I yell towards the trees. 

“Wait. What happens if we use up all our lives?” Martha asks Spencer.

“Well, usually that would mean … game over.” He told her.

“What do you mean, game over? Are you saying that we can actually die in here?” Fridge moves towards the couple.

“I mean, I don't know for sure, but...” Spencer tried to explain when Fridge cut him off, tired of no one having any answers.

“You're not sure? You're not sure, Mr. Video-Game-Genius?” He was blaming everything on Spencer, when he was the one who found the stupid game.

“Shut up, Fridge. He’s never been stuck in one before.” I glare down at the short male, making him being quiet for once and let Spencer explain.

“I'm not certain, but yes, I'm afraid we all could die. That is my big concern right now.” He tried to put it gently, but there was no way to do that.

We were stunned into silence by the news. I was convinced this was an unlimited lives game, but I should have known better. Most old game only gives you three. “We better find the missing piece, then.” Martha reminds us that our goal didn’t change. 

Bethany opens up the map. “Okay. It looks like there's a village on the other side of this mountain. Maybe that's the bazaar.” 

“Let's do it.” Spencer nods his head. I pick up my machine gun and leather jacket from the ground.

“Wait. I got to take a leak first.” Fridge stops us before we started our journey to the bazaar.

“I've been dreading this all day, but so do I. Can I come with you and you show me how it's done? I may need your help.” Bethany asks him. I sympathize with her, having that dangling between her legs must be weird.

“Uh yeah, sure, yeah, I'm... I'll help you out.” Fridge stutters out. He never looks so uncomfortable with something in his life. The boys and Bethany walked into the wood to do their business, leaving Martha and I behind. We took a seat on a big rock as we waited.

“So where did you get the machine gun and jacket?” She eyes the machine gun on my back and the leather jacket I tied around my waist. 

“I had to kill three of the dirt bikers, I took it from them.” I look down at my feet. I knew they weren’t real people, but it still felt shitty.

“I didn’t think of that. Not that I had the time to do it.” She sighed, looking down at her exposed stomach. 

“You want it.” I untied it and held it out to her. 

“You sure?” She reaches her hand out but didn’t grab it. 

“Yeah, I’m not using it.” I shrug. 

“Thank you.” She took it from me and put it on, looking a little more comfortable with herself now. 

“Martha, Jennifer come look at my penis!” Bethany yells to us from the woods. 

“No thanks.” Martha yells back for the both of us. “Did you get anything else from them?” She asks me.

“60 dollars and an...” I reach up to realize I didn’t have the earpiece anymore. “Well I had an earpiece.” I grumbled. 

“It must have fallen off in the water.” She nods her head.

“I wanted to keep it, so we would know what they were doing.” I hung my head, feeling like I fail the team. 

We turn around when we heard something moving through the forest towards us. I put a hand on my knife, ready to whip it out if necessary while Martha got into a fighting stance. We relax when Bethany came barging out. “Oh my god, you guys having a penis is so much fun.” She claps her hands. 

“Maybe if we have time, you can play with it some more, but for now let’s get to the Bazaar.” I laugh.

“Right,” She pulled out her map leading the way. 

“Be careful of the ground, guys. It's uneven. I'd hate for anybody to twist an ankle. I did that once in camp.” Spencer warns us. While the girls were able to tune him out, Fridge couldn’t.

“Please stop talking? Please!” He snaps at him.

“Okay, sure. No problem.” Spence nod his head. I shook my head as I move closer to the girls. It funny how Spencer was so much bigger and powerful than him now, but he was still so eager to please Fridge. 

“Can I borrow your jacket?” Martha asks Bethany who had it dangle over her shoulder.

“Yeah, sure,” She hands it to her. 

“Thanks.” Martha tied it around her waist, so the jacket would cover her butt.

“What are you doing?” She watches the girl with curious eyes.

“I feel like I'm wearing a bikini at school.” She grumbled, zipping up the leather jacket.

“I did that once. They sent me to the office.” Bethany smirks smugly. 

“I remember that day.” I nod my head. She looks stunning, but it wasn’t the time or place for it. 

“Of course,” Martha scoffs.

“Noah likes it when I show some skin. It's like the key to our relationship.” She smiles when she talks about him. I don’t know why she liked him so much. He was handsome, but he broke up with her any time she didn’t do what he told her to. He broke up with her this time, because he felt like she was posting too much pictures on Instagram.

“Ew,” Martha pulls a gross out face.

“Judgy much? Seriously, I can't even open my mouth around you. You don't even know me, but you, like, decided you hate me.” Bethany glares at the girl.

“Oh, wait a minute. I don't hate you.” She shook her head. 

“You don't?” Her face softened as she took off her hat. 

“No. Look, I just think you live in, like, the hot popular girl bubble, where everybody either treats you like a princess or like an object. Maybe it makes you a little… self-absorbed or something?” Martha confessed to her. Bethany turns to me for a second opinion.

“That’s how you can come off at times.” I nod my head. 

“That's fair. But do you think maybe the reason why you're so judgy is because you're, like, afraid that people aren't gonna like you, so you decide not to like them first?” Bethany accept her criticize, which show a lot of growth on her part. Her giving constructive criticism back made my heart swell. This is what we need to be doing as woman helping each other become better people. 

“No. Maybe. Maybe.” She slowly accepts that about herself.

“Okay, then. I'm just saying you're a babe. Own it.” She told her, putting her hat back on.

“Thanks. I guess.” She smiles.

“And little miss Jennifer, how come you never told me you had a thing with Fridge.” Bethany turns to me.

“What, you did?” Martha turn to me shocked. 

“What are you talking about?” I tried to deny it. 

“I heard you say he can’t put his paws on you anymore.” She points her finger at me to signal that she had me corner. 

“You did say that.” Martha thought back to what I said and realize my slip up. 

I look around to make sure the boys were still far behind us. “It was a long time ago, the summer before we went to high school.” I whisper to them. 

“Does Spencer know?” Martha asks.

“No, he was at camp.” I shook my head. 

“Well, what happened?” Bethany tilts her head in concern.

“School started and he made like he didn’t know me. Guess he didn’t want to be called chubby chaser.” I shrug trying to play it off like it was nothing. 

“Well, fuck him!” Bethany growls out, taking us by surprise. “You deserve a guy who’ll have you proudly on his arm. You’ll find that.” 

“Fuck Noah, you deserve a guy who sees you as more than arm candy, because you are so much more than that.” I told her. I felt like sometime she focuses on her look because she didn’t feel like she had anything else.

“Aw,” Bethany pulls me into a crushing hug. 

* * *

We continue our journey to the Bazaar that leads us to walk along the side of a mountain. It was nerve racking because one false move and there goes another life. It didn’t help that since it was nature, nothing was level. I had to watch every step I took.

“So, sick of this game. Just stay out of my way, Spencer.” Fridge started grumbling again making me try to put more distance between us. I was getting sick of it. We were all stuck in a shitty situation. He was making like he was the only one. 

“What are you mad at me for?” Spencer groan offend by his old friend.

“Why? Are you seriously asking me that? You got me kicked off the team. Then you got me stuck in whatever this is. And you wonder why we’re not friends no more.” Fridge said making me stop to turn and watch them. I knew hurtful things were about to be said. 

“This is why we're not friends anymore? You didn't want to get stuck in Jumanji? I don't think so. We're not friends, because I'm not cool enough to hang out with you. So, you pretended not to even know me anymore, until you needed me to do your homework because you couldn't do it yourself. No wonder you don't know anything about westward expansion.” Spencer told him off. I went to clap my hands, but Martha grabs me and shook her head.

“Okay, you see that? You know what? I'm not stupid, Spencer. I asked you to do me one simple favor. Do my homework, so I don't get kicked off the team, and you messed that up. Now I can't do the one thing that I'm good at, and it's all your fault. I should kick the shit out you right now.” Fridge threatens him. 

Spencer looks him up and down and then looks at himself. “I'd like to see you try.” He glares at him. 

“What did you say? Oh, okay. I see what's going on here.” Fridge gasp at the balls Spencer was gaining.

“Guys,” Bethany whines. 

“You think because you...You, what, 6'4 ", 6'5", 270 pounds of pure muscle, I'm supposed to be afraid of you? Is that what you think?” He let out a bitter laugh.

“Maybe,” Spencer shrugs, looking unclear if he really wanted to fight Fridge.

“Let me tell you something. You're still the same annoying kid I've been trying to shake since ninth grade. Ain't nothing changed. Don't let this new body get your butt whooped.” Fridge made like he was going to punch him and Spencer flinch. Bethany let out a sad whimper in pity for Spencer while I glare at Fridge.

“Dumbass,” Spencer said under his breath. Fridge looks at him in shock before charging at him and pushing him off the cliff. 

Martha, Bethany, and I ran to the edge of the cliff screaming. I turn away not being able to watch him fall to his death. “You killed him!” Martha turn back to face him. 

“Fridge, you lunatic!” Bethany screams at him. 

“Chill out. He'll be back.” He snaps at us. 

“I can’t believe you Fridge, stop blaming Spencer for everything. You’re the one who found this game and wanted everyone play.” I point a finger at him.

“I only found this game, because you ask about the damn donate box.” He glares at me.

“I only did that because you invade my personal space.” I hover over him, knowing that he would hate it. 

“The only problem you have with me in your personal space is that you like it, even after what I did.” He stood on his tippy toe so his lips were only an inch away from mine. 

“Stop talking to me like you know me Fridge, you don’t. Not anymore.” I sneer as I step away from him. 

“I hate to burst your bubble, but you haven’t change that much. Even in this body you’re still doing the same shit.” He waved his hand gesture to my new form. 

“Oh yeah, what,” I put my hand on my hip waiting for him to talk some more nonsense.

“The way you bite your lip when frustrated. That annoying thing where you make a sly remark about yourself, because you think if you beat people to the fat punch line then you won. The way you put your hand on your hip when you think you won the battle.” He gestures to my hand that was currently on my hip that I quickly lower and put behind my back. “I also know how you try to look for the good in everyone. You try your hardest to the person that everyone can depend on. That's why when someone screws you over, you hold onto that grudge like your life depends on it.”

I bite my lip, cursing him for taking that much notice to me and I curse myself for like how it made me feel warm inside that he did. The game chimes and rumbles signaling that Spencer was coming back. It was impressive that he was able to land on his feet. He looks down at his tattoo to see two lines. He looks up in disbelief at Fridge for killing him.

“Don't call me a dumb-ass.” Fridge points at him.

“Don't push me.” Spencer warns him.

“Or what, Spencer?” He smugly cocks his head to the side.

“Or I'll push you back.” He glares at him. 

Fridge pushes him, but this time Spencer didn’t move an inch. Fridge slaps him across the face and once again he didn’t move. Spencer hit him back, sending him flying into the side of the mountain.

Fridge got up ready to fight. “Did you just smack me? You gonna smack me?” 

“Fridge let it go, you have to know he would hit you back.” I roll my eyes, tired of his male ego. 

“Huh? You wanna smack...?” He ran to tackle Spencer, but he moves out the way. Fridge would have fallen off the cliff, if Spencer didn’t grab him by his backpack. He throws Fridge back on the side of the mountain.

“Enough. We can't waste lives. We need each other. Like it or not, we have to do this together.” He pulls a smolder making Martha look away blushing and Bethany stare at him. 

“Could you say that one more time, please?” Bethany asks.

“We have to do this together?” He said, not seeing what she needs him to repeat it for it wasn’t complicated instructions.

“But with the smolder. Do you have control of that, or does that happen naturally?” She asked, wanting to see it again. 

“It just happens naturally.” He said, doing it again subconsciously. Bethany bites her lip as she checks him out. Martha stares at him through her lashes. I wonder if it didn’t affect me because I saw him as a brother.


	5. Bazaar

I was so happy that we were finally in the crowded streets of the Bazaar. “ What are we supposed to be doing? ” Fridge asks.

“ Looking for the missing piece of the map, ” Martha said looking around. 

“ So we just start asking around for it? ” Fridge wanted to know the game plan. 

“No, I don’t think we should draw attention to ourselves. Maybe one of the vendor’s has it.” I look at all the booth. Most were selling food or clothing. 

“ I agree with Jenny. I think we look around, scope the place out, but most importantly be discreet. ” He made sure to look at Fridge when he said the last part.

“ Rations! Get your rations! ” A man waves a loaf of bread around. 

“ Does anyone have any money? I'm literally starving. ” Bethany whines. I hand her a ten dollar bill I took off the bikers.

“Thank.” She and Martha move through the crowd to the man. 

“ Guys, I think the game is trying to tell us to keep our health up. ” Spencer told us. He smolder as he said, “ We need to eat. ” 

“ Okay, stop doing that. ” Fridge said while I giggle. 

“Someone upset that someone else is the chick magnet and not them.” I tease as I went to get some bread.

“ Oh, my God, this is so good. I haven't had bread since I was, like, 9. ” Bethany moans as she eats.

“ Are you serious? ” I raise any eyebrow at her. 

“ How do you think I got these abs? ” She smirks. The vendor looks at Shelly’s pot stomach in confusion. 

“ Let me try some of that. ” Fridge took a piece from her. He took a big bite and got a concerned look on his face. “ Mm. Wait, what...? What is this? ” He asks the vendor. 

“ That's my famous pound cake. ” He gave him a smile.

“ Cake? ” I gasped as I back up not wanting him to explode by me.

“ Bethany, you said this was bread. ” Fridge said, keeping the cake in his mouth not daring to shallow it.

“ It's been so long, I forgot what it tastes like. ” She shrugs apologetically.

“ How do you forget what...? What's hap… is something happening to me? ” He turns to ask me.

“No.” I shook my head. 

“ Am I... Am I shaking? ” He asks. I shook my head again. “ Am I breaking out? ” He felt his face. 

“No, clear skin,” I told him. 

“ Am I still black? ” He looks down at his hands.

“ Yes. ” I nod my head. 

“ Okay. Okay, right? We're fine. Everything's fine. ” He smiles at us, although none of us were convinced. “ It's okay. It probably just meant that I love cake, that I couldn't resist it. Yeah. Hey, it's all good... ” He moves over to Spencer before exploding. I duck behind one of the pillars to protect myself from the blast. 

The game chimes and rumbles, sending Fridge down from the sky. He went through the roof and land in someone booth, breaking a table and having a shelf land on him. “ God! Oh! Ow! What the hell? Ugh! ” Fridge yells. 

“ Like I said important to be discreet, ” Spencer lifts the shelf off of him. 

“ Hey, you also said eat. ” He snapped at him. 

“ Rations! Get your... ” The vendor came around waving the bread. 

“ You better shut your ass up! ” Fridge growl at him, making the man run away.

“ Dr. Bravestone. Thank goodness you're here. Jumanji needs you. ” A little boy wearing the local clothing ran up to Spencer.

“ Uh thanks. Good to be here. ” He nods, not knowing what else to say.

“ Ask about the missing piece. ” Martha pushes Bethany to the boy. 

“ Oh, right. Hi. I'm Bethany. I mean… Professor Shelly, something. I'm a map doctor, and I have this map that, like, has a missing piece. ” She bent down to talk to the little boy. 

The boy’s eyes stay on Spencer, like he didn’t even hear her. “ Dr. Bravestone. Thank goodness you're here. Jumanji needs you. ” 

“ Rude. ” She scoffed.

“I think it’s got to be you, Spencer. You’re the leading man in this game.” I nudge him. 

“ We need to find the missing piece. ” He told the boy. 

The boy motions with his head of us to follow him. He led us to this tent that had a basket sitting in the middle of it. “ What you need is in the basket. One false move, you're in a casket. Trust one another, and never blink. The missing piece is not what you think. ” The boy gave us a riddle.

“ Oy vey, ” Spencer sighs. 

“Why the fuck can’t people say what they mean here?” I snap. I hated riddles. 

“ Good luck, mighty hero. Jumanji needs you. ” The boy smiles at Spencer.

“ Jumanji needs him. We know. You said it several times. ” Fridge spat out bitterly. The boy ran off smiling like he didn’t hear him. 

“ So thinking there's a, um… a snake in there or something? ” He stares at the basket in the middle of the room.

“ Yep, sounds like a Bravestone thing to me. ” Fridge nods his head.

“ Why would this be a Bravestone thing? ” He whines.

“ You're the hero. You heard what he said. Jumanji needs you. Now, get. ” He jerks his head for him to get in the room.

As Spencer steps into the room, the drums started beating again. “ I don't wanna do this! ” He turns around to yell at us.

“You have to if we want to beat this game.” I yell at him. Spence nod his head taking a deep breath to hover his hands over the basket. We step in the room keeping our backs against the wall, trying to support Spencer while not getting too close.

He lifts up the cover to reveal a snake. “ Black mamba! ” Fridge scream, point at it. It hissed in response to the yelling, making Martha gasp. 

“Fridge, what the fuck? If you freak out, the snake will freak that.” I scold him. 

“ That's a black mamba. A quarter milligram of its venom is enough to kill an adult. You'll feel a tingling in your mouth and extremities, followed by a fever, foaming at the mouth, and ataxia, which means loss of muscle control. How do I know that? ” He freak out about the knowledge he never learn inside his head.

“ What do we do? ” Martha was close to tears, being that venom was her weakness and she only had two lives. 

“ See anything else in there? ” Bethany asks.

“ I didn't have time. ” He told us. We groan, being at a loss of what to do. “ "Trust one another and never blink. Never blink. ” He repeated what the boy told us.

“ You guys, I think it's a staring contest. ” Bethany said with excitement.

“ What are you talking about? ” I stare at her like she was insane.

“ Think about it. Never blink? ” She emphasized the last two words.

“ Guys, I think she's right. At camp, they used to tell us if you see a rattlesnake, don't move. I think someone has to make direct eye contact and not blink. ” Spencer told us the game plan.

“ And then Spencer will reach in and grab whatever else is in there. ” Bethany volunteers him for that part. 

“ What? Why me again? ” He whines.

“ Because you're Bravestone, ” Martha point at him. 

“ Okay, fine. Who's good at staring and not blinking? ” He looks around for who would do the other part of the plan. Fridge began to blink repeatedly, making me slap his shoulder.

“ I'm amazing at it. ” Bethany admits painfully. 

“ Then this is your moment. ” Martha nod to her.

“You got this Bethany, giving it your selfie stare.” I patted her on the back. 

She kneels in front of the basket, so she would be eye level with snake. Spencer held the anger snake in as it was shaking the basket around.  “ Just say when. ” He told her. 

“Now,” She said. Spencer lifts the lid up. The black mamba came face to face with Bethany. It didn’t care at all that she kept its stare. The mamba hisses and launches itself at her face. She duck out of the way just in time. 

Fridge grabs me as he went down to the floor to get us out of it swinging range. I watch from the ground as the snake flew at Martha’s face. Spencer grabs the mamba right after its head just in time. It was still hissing and thrashing around to get to her.

“ What do we do? ” He asks, now that he had a good grip on the snake.

“ You got to defang it. ” Fridge said as he stood up and helps me up.

“ I got to what? ” Spencer cried out. 

“ You got to pull his mouth back from the blind spot to disorient it. But be very careful of the venom gland and the exposed secondary venom duct. Then you got to snap its teeth......out of its head. ” He went over there and did it was he explain it. He dropped it to the ground, now that it was no longer dangerous. It slides away. I stared at him with lust filled eyes at him taking control like that.

“ I guess it wasn't a staring contest. ” Bethany said, wondering what the riddle meant then. 

“ Trust each other and never blink. ” Martha repeats it, thinking about it herself.

“ You trusted me. You trusted me, and I defanged the snake. I did it. I did that. ” Fridge points at himself as he puffs his chest out in pride.

“It was really hot.” I gasp, fanning myself off. 

“Oh yeah,” He did a peacock strut over to me. 

“Yeah,” I blush. He looks back to see Spencer and Martha staring at each other and Bethany was looking in the basket. He leaned forward and up to give me a peck on the lips. 

“ You guys? This does not look like a piece of a map. ” Bethany said making the two couples turn towards her. She held up a little elephant figurine.

“ The missing piece is an elephant? ” Spencer narrows his eyes. 

“ Oh, wait, there's something written on the wrapping paper. When you see me, begin the climb. ” She read the paper out loud.

“ Begin the climb? When you see an elephant? ” Martha said, not understanding what that meant. 

“Another stupid fucking riddle,” I grumbled.

“ I defanged a snake, ” Fridge smiles to himself. 

We walk out of the tent, back into the crowded street. “ So keep your eyes peeled for an elephant, I guess? That's, like, the next level of the game? ” Bethany searches the paper for any clues to where we could find the elephant. 

“Fuck.” I said underneath my breath when I heard a familiar engine revving. We saw a group of thugs wear familiar clothes; make their way through the street. They were searching the area, pushing locals out of their way.

“ Hey! ” A man yells and points at us. 

“ Run! ” Fridge screams. We didn’t need to be told twice. We ran down the street the best we could with how crowded it was. 

“ Watch out! GET OUT THE WAY! ” I push and shove people since I was leading the pack except for Spencer who was running ahead of me. “Jump!” I yell over my shoulder to them as I jump onto baskets that were all lines up in a roll as I ran across them. 

We ran to an open clearing where we saw Spencer fighting a couple thugs. “ Duck! Block! Ka-blam! Evade! Punch! Wall toss! ” He yells out every move he made. 

“ That is insane. ” Bethany gasps, as we stare at the hole in the wall. We follow Spencer as he continues to fight guys. 

He caught a knife before it impales itself in Fridges’ face. “ Let's do this. ” He gave the knife to him before going on to fight. 

“ Do what? Put it in my backpack. ” He hands me the knife and I did as he said.

“ Dodge! Head slam! Throw through ceiling! ” He yelled out some more moves. 

“ Ah! ” We yell out as the guy went high in the air. He throws another guy into a pillar breaking it when someone shot a gun in the air. People screamed and ran away.

“ Hello, doctor. It’s been a long time. I believe you have something that belongs to me. ” A man from the background story steps from out of the shadows. Van Pelt had more henchmen behind him. 

“ We just want to go home. ” Spencer told him. His henchmen gun cocked their guns to point it at us. 

Smoke bomb drops in front of us covered the whole area with gray smoke. “ Come on! Come with me! Hurry! ” A man told us. I was quick to follow him, thinking he couldn’t take me anywhere worse than here.

“ Get him! ” Van Pelt yelled. Shot started being fired. 

The mystery man leads us to an empty hallway and lifts a manhole cover up. He orders us, “ Come on. Down here. Come on. Quick! ” We climb down as fast as we could. I look around after I drop down, I was surprise to see we were in an underground tunnel and no a sewer.

He put the manhole cover back before climbing down the ladder. He pulls down his scarf to reveal a handsome face. Bethany and I share a look of interest. “ Shh! ” He put his finger to his mouth before anyone could ask any questions. Van Pelt’s men were literally running over us.

“ I need you to follow me and do exactly as I say. Let's move. ” He lights up a torch. We follow him down a narrow walkway. We went in a single file line of the handsome mystery man, Martha, Bethany, me, Fridge, and Spencer.

“ Oh my God, you guys, I am so stoked you are here. You have no idea. So stoked, ” He throws a pantie dropping smile over his shoulder at us, making Bethany and I sigh dreamily.

“Calm yourself, woman. I bet he can’t even defang a snake.” Fridge whispers in my ear. I roll my eyes at his jealousy. Serve him right, after all those years of seeing him with his numerous girlfriends.

“ You are? ” Martha asks.

“ I mean I saw you guys in the bazaar, and I thought to myself, no way. Then I was like, yeah, that's… Backs against the wall! ” He screams the last part. We did that as spears come flying out at us.

“ Oh, my goodness! ” Fridge yells. We stare jaw dropped at the skeleton that was pinned against the wall get its skull crushed.

“ Let's keep moving. ” He led us further down the tunnel. “ Watch your step in here. ” He warned us.

“Yeah, I got that.” I mutter. I step careful making sure I didn’t trigger anything. 

“ Um, who are you? ” Martha asks seeing that we could talk now. 

“ And who do you think we are? ” Fridge asks his own question.

“ Right. Sorry, okay, my bad. Um… let me backup a little bit here. ” He said, as he tries to figure out where to start.

“ Wait, are you the pilot? Seaplane somebody? ” Spencer calls from the back of the line.

“ Yeah, that's me. ” He pointed to himself.

“ Wait a minute. You're the other character that was taken. So you're in the game too? ” Fridge remembers the character he tried to choose. 

“Fridge, you could have been hot instead of short.” I whisper to him. 

“Excuse me?” He put his hand on his chest. 

“ Stay off the white bricks... ” The pilot said. 

“ What? ” Spencer said. 

I look down and move my toes quickly off the white bricks. “ And freeze. ” He instructed. I let out a scream with everyone else as huge blades came up from the ground. After a few seconds they went back into the ground. “ So gnarly, ” He chuckled shaking his head before walking further in. 

“ This game sucks, ” Fridge whispers behind me.

The pilot put his arm out to stop Martha from going forward. He drops his torch down a hole. I heard what sounded like something thrashing around in the water. 

“What was that Martha?” I ask, seeing her staring down. 

“Crocodiles,” She looks back at us with wide eyes. 

“Next time Martha, the answer is none of your damn business.” I shallows the lump in my throat.

“ Alright, get this plank. ” He put down a plank that was leaning up against the wall and put it down over the gaping hole in the ground. “ Follow me. ” He walked over the plank. “ Careful. It's a horrible way to die. ” He warned Martha before she could step on it. She gingerly walks over the plank. “ There you go. Alright, ” He grabs her when she was in reaching distance to help her across. 

Somehow Bethany was in the back of the pack and I was next. “Can you go next?” I turn to Fridge. He nods his head and I move to the back of the line. 

“What wrong girl?” Bethany whispers. 

“I went on vacation in Florida and a crocodile almost got me.” I told her. She nods her head in understanding.

Fridge froze midway, but made it across. Spencer walk across it like was nothing. Bethany was walking across when a crocodile jump up almost getting her foot. She ran across the rest of the way and end up stumbling into the pilot pushing him up against the wall. 

“ Hi there, ” She whispered to him seductively. I’m sure if she was in her regular body she would have had him hooked but, she wasn’t. 

“ Hi. ” He said uncomfortably. 

I stood frozen as I stare down into the hole. I couldn’t see them but I could hear them thrashing around, snarling, and snapping their jaws. “Come on Jenny, this isn’t Florida you’ll be okay.” Spencer tried to encourage me. 

“You’re right this isn’t Florida. Florida has normally crocodile. These are Jumanji’s crocodile. There probably bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive.” I sat down and curl up away from the edge. “Go on without me.” I rock myself. 

“Jennifer stop talking stupid. We aren’t going on without you. Now get your ass up and walk across that damn plank.” Fridge demands. 

I shut my eyes and bury my head in my knees. Someone playing with my ponytail made me jerks up. I saw the face of the handsome pilot. “I did this for the other Connie, so I know I can do this for you.” He told me. 

“Do what?” I narrow my eyes at him. 

“Do you trust me?” He whispers, looking deep into my eyes. 

My first thought was hell no, I don’t know you. But, then I felt a tug deep within me that said yes. “I do. I shouldn’t because I don’t know you but I do. You think its cause Connie trust Seaplane?” I ask. 

“Maybe,” He gave me that smile that made me melt. “Okay now, stay calm.” He put one arm under my knees and another behind my back and lifts me up. 

I wrap my arms around his neck. “Are you sure about this?” I ask as he walks towards the plank. 

“Like I said I did this before.” He shrugged and stepped onto the plank. I close my eyes and buried my face in his shoulder and neck. 

“Give her to me.” Fridge helps me down when I got to the other side

I let out a breath of relief when my feet touch the ground. “Thank you,” I turn in Fridge’s arms to smile at Seaplane.

“It’s no problem. Now,  come on ” He led us through a latch door, bring us back to the forest. We ran through the door, happy to be out of the tunnel of hell. “ Anyway, I'm Alex. ” He introduces himself.

“I’m  Spencer Gilpin. This is Martha, Jennifer, Fridge and Bethany. ” Spencer introduces himself then the rest of us. I smile and wave when he said my name.

“ Bethany? You're a girl? ” He points to her in question.

“ Woman, ” She corrected him. He laughs, that moment in the tunnel making sense to him now.

“ In real life, you'd probably wanna hit that. ” Fridge points at her. She smacks him lightly on the shoulder, while I smack him hard upside the head.

He looked at her in confusion then me. “Don’t be disgusting.” I hiss at him.


	6. Seaplane

Alex brought us to his open hut in the middle of the forest. It had electricity for lights and his blender to work. But, I didn’t know why he didn’t build a roof and walls. I would have done that before I built a bar. Maybe that was just my personal preferences. 

“ What are you making? ” Spencer asks.

“ Margaritas, it's actually one of my strengths, that and piloting, although I did get shot down by a couple orangutans in fighter jets, so maybe not that great at it. Anyway, cheers. ” Alex hand each of us a cup. I squints my eyes, when he said orangutans then I remember Van Pelt had control of the animals.

“Thanks.” I nod to him after he gave me a margarita. 

“ I've never had alcohol before. ” Martha giggles, looking down at her cup. 

“ Me either. ” Spencer smiles at her. 

“ Know what? What the hell? Woo! ” She clink her glass with his. 

“ Lehayim, ” He cheers. They took a big gulp to spit it back in.

“ And I'm done with that. ” She put it down on the table in front of them. 

“ It's good. ” Spencer smile at Alex as he put his down too. 

I laugh, as I drank mine. My dad let me drink at a few family events, so I was used to the taste. “I’m going to get a refill.” Fridge stood up.

“Me too,” I held up my glass for him to take. 

He took it from me and made his way over to the bar. “ Can I get two more of those? ” He asks Alex.

“ Yeah, ” The pilot/bartender nod and pour him two more glasses. Fridge hand me, a glass before going to look around the hut.

“ Alex? What's up with all these candles? ” Bethany looks around at the candle there were surround the place. I went over by her to see if they had any smell. They had a woods earthy smell to them. 

“ Citronella, one of my weaknesses is mosquitoes, which is kind of a bummer when you live alone in an open hut in the jungle. ” He shrugs, smiling. I wonder how long he has been by himself that he was so happy for company.

“ He's single. ” Bethany whispers to me giggling. 

“ Who's this? Who's Alan Parrish? ” Fridge points to a carving in the wood that said Alan Parrish Was Here 

“ He's the guy who built this place. ” Alex told him. 

“ Wait, other people have been stuck here too? ” Spencer asks.

“ Yeah, this is Alan Parrish's house. I'm just living in it. ” He gave a small chuckle.

“ So, Alex, tell me, how long have you been in the game? ” Bethany said as she walked over, swaying her hips and taking off her hat to run her hand through her hair.

“ Oh, it's tough to say. Time is kind of funny here, but a few months, at least. ” He shrugged, for once not having a smile on his face.

“ A few months? ” I gasped feeling sorry for him. 

“ Yeah, I can't seem to make it past the transportation shed. ” He sighs.

“ Transportation shed? What's that? ” Martha asks.

“ It's the next level. First time, my hot-air balloon wouldn't even take off. And then there was the whole plane thing I mentioned. And once I got down to my last life, I realized I was screwed. And that I was never going to get out of here by myself. Half the stuff that came at me, I had zero way to deal with. You can't kill a black mamba with a margarita. ” He stares down at his feet, looking very much defeated.

“ You sure can't. You need a zoologist for that. ” Fridge points at himself. I squints my eyes at him to see that he stole my refill that I end up not touching.

“ Alex, we can help each other. You've been here a long time, you know the game, and between us, we have a lot of strengths. ” Spencer stood up.

“ Yeah, we're actually pretty good together. ” Martha stares up at Spencer, making me squirm with excitement at my ship taking sail.

“ I don't know bro. Okay, I mess up one more time, and I’m toast. Totally freaks me out even thinking about going back to the transportation shed. I don't want to die in Jumanji. ” He shook his head. 

“ We just got to stick together. If we do that, we can win. I know we can. ” Spencer tries to convince him.

“ Oh my God, you're our missing piece. You were the thing we needed to find. ” Bethany points at him in realization.

“ So the clue was to, what, go to the bazaar to find the missing piece? It wasn't the elephant. ” Martha finish Bethany’s thought.

“ It was me? ” Alex points to himself.

“Nigel did say that he’s counting on the six of us to lift the curse.” I point out. 

“ Dudes, let's do this. ” Alex stood up and smile at us. Bethany went to pull him in a hug, but he did a bro handshake with her. 

“ Hey, Spencer, you gonna drink that margarita? ” Fridge picks up the cup that Spencer spit in.

“Oh no, you’re done.” I grab the cup from him. 

“Come on, baby I only had three cups.” He giggles trying to grab it out of my hand. I was able to dodge him easily. 

“Come on, we’re going to the transportation shed.” Spencer grabs him by the backpack to drag him along. 

“ These are good margaritas. ” He gave Alex two thumbs up. 

Alex led us to a hill that overlooked the shed. “ There it is. The transportation shed. There are all sorts of vehicles inside. We got to get one, get across the canyon, and get to the Jaguar statue. ” He points to an old shed that had two armed guards in front.

“ Okay, I see the transportation shed, I see the canyon, but I still can't see the statue, which is weird 'cause it's the most important thing in Jumanji and it's huge. ” Bethany looks down at the map.

“ That's what she said. ” Fridge let out a drunken laugh.

“ You drunk, Fridge? ” Spencer looks over at him.

“ What are you talking about? I ain't drunk. ” He looked offended that someone would imply he was a lightweight.

“ He is drunk. ” I glare at him. 

“ I had three little margaritas. ” He waves two fingers in my face.

“ You're about half your usual size. ” I raise an eyebrow at him.

“ Whatever, whatever, you always want to throw that in my face. But, I’m really tall in real life and you’re not. ” He stuck his tongue out at me. 

“ Alex, what do we do? How do we get past these guards? ” Spencer got us back on track.

“ Last time, I waited till they left. ” He explains. 

“ How long did that take? ” Spencer asks.

“ Three weeks? ” He whispered.

“ Oh, we gonna die. ” Fridge slurs.

“ Okay. Plan B. ” Spencer suggested.

“ Maybe there's another door somewhere. But we got to distract those guys first. ” Alex came up with another plan. 

“ I've got it. Distracting guys is, like, the main thing I do. He plays video games, I distract guys.” Bethany smile proudly.

“Bethany, I hate to break it to you right now, but you don't exactly have the, um, the tool kit. ” Fridge reminds her. 

“ Not me. Them. ” She rolls her eyes and point at us. 

“ What? ” Martha and I shook our heads.

“ You have to go down there and flirt with those guys and hold their attention while we sneak in. ” Bethany explains to us. 

“ No! ” Martha shook her head. 

“Fine, but I’m keeping my knives.” I pull on my holster. 

“Are you going to leave your fellow woman, hanging?” Bethany turns to Martha. 

“No!  I can't just go over there and flirt with some weird soldiers I don't even know. ” She crossed her arms across her chest.

“ I know, but right now we don't have a better idea. ” Bethany told her.

“ You don't understand. I actually can't do it. I can't talk to guys. I'm terrible at it. ” Martha whispers to us. 

“ I can give you some pointers. ” Bethany whispers back.

“ No, I'm sorry. We have to come up with another plan. ” Martha shook her head, walking away. Spencer went over to talk to her.

“I’ll be fine. I can do it by myself.” I said, feeling everyone else eyes on me.

“I think you should leave the holster here.” Alex said. 

“What? Why?” I felt safe with the knives. They were my safe blanket, I knew if I got into trouble I could pick one up and Connie would take over. 

“It might set them off right away.” He said.

“Alright, Fridge put it in the backpack.” I told him as I undid the straps.

“Yeah, sure, you need any help.” He stares at my thighs. 

“No, I got it.” I roll my eyes as I took it off and hand it to him. He put it in the backpack. 

“ You're a total badass. You could do anything. ” Spencer yells, making us turn to look at them. They were staring into each other’s eyes, smiling and laughing.

“ That's beautiful, Spencer. Why don't I set you up with a nice candlelight dinner? Or do you guys want to get the hell out of here? ” Fridge whispers with his hands on his hips. 

“ Alright, show me how it's done. ” Martha turns to Bethany with a determined look on her face.

“ Class is in session. Are you coming, Jenny? ” She turns to me.

“No, I’m good.” I shook my head. 

“ Come on, girl. Watch and learn. ” She led Martha away from us. 

“What do you know about flirting?” Spencer asks.

“That if I show enough cleavage, I could be reading the dictionary and men will pretend to be interested.” I smirk. 

“I don’t know if you notice, but you don’t have the same cup size.” Fridge put his hands up to show how big my breasts are in real life.

“Something tells me with these men it won’t matter.” I look down at the brutish looking soldiers.

“ Hey, what did you mean by that candlelight-dinner thing? ” Spencer turns to Fridge when the girls were out of sight.

“ What are you talking about? ” Fridge looks up at him.

“ You said it, me and Martha, candlelight dinner. What does that even mean? ” He bent over to whisper to him.

“ The girl is into you, Spencer. ” Fridge rolls his eyes at having to state the obvious.

“ What? ” He screams out.

“Shut up.” I kick him. I look down at the guards to let out a breath of relief that they didn’t seem to have heard him. 

“Is something on my face?” I ask when I caught Alex staring at me for the third time. 

He looked down blushing. “I’m sorry, it just the last Connie and I kind of had a thing going.” He scratches the back of his neck. 

“Yeah, well you ain’t having anything going with this one.” Fridge pulls me close to him. I roll my eyes.

“Are you guys together?” Alex looks between us. 

“No!” Fridge and I said. I separate myself from him. 

Spencer laughs at the thought. “No, she hates him. Fridge, can I talk to you for a second, alone?” 

Fridge stares at Alex and I before shaking his head. “Come on, please.” He begs. 

“Fine,” He grumbled, walking off with him. 

“So, he likes you a lot.” Alex turns to me. 

“Yeah, when he’s friends aren’t around.” I look through the binoculars that Fridge left behind. When I felt Alex stare stay on me, I continue. “Let’s just say I’m not a size two in real life.” 

“Oh.” He let out. An awkward silence fell between us. 

“How about we try look from any angle, can’t see a side door if we’re staring at the front?” I point to a couple boulders on the far right that would hide us while we looked. 

“Good idea.” He got off the rock he was sitting on. We made our way over there. “You know, I’m not this in real life either.” He told me.

I turned around to look at him, making us stop behind some tall grass that would block us from the guard’s view. “What do you mean?” I ask.

“I’m not a pretty boy pilot, I’m a full on metal head. I play the drums.” He plays some air drums as if that would make it more believable. 

“What is your favorite band?” I giggle at how silly he looked.

“Metallica,” He said with no hesitance. 

“I like Enter Sandman.” I told him my favorite song of theirs.

“You know, if Fridge doesn’t come to his senses then I don’t mind going out with a girl that isn’t a size two.” He winks at me.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I blush, smiling at him. 

We move to the boulders that let us see the side of the shed. “The slide door right there.” Alex spotted it right away. “I’ll tell the guys.” He told me, before going off in the direction they went in. 

I had to wait a few minutes before he came back with the guys. “ Okay, there's the door. We just need something to cut through the fence. ” Alex points the door out to them.

“ Okay, Fridge, you got anything like that in the backpack? ” Spencer asks him.

“ Uh, yeah, I should. Here you go. I got some bolt cutters. Does that seem like a good tool for the situation? ” Fridge pulls out a pair of bolt cutters that were too long to fit in his backpack.

“ Perfect, actually. ” Spencer took the bolts from him.

“ It's called backpack power, baby. ” Fridge turns to Alex and me to brag.

“Come on, Jenny.” Martha calls to me. I nodded my head and pull my long sleeve fishnet top off, leaving me in a white sport bra that were pushing my breast up nicely.

“Hold this.” I throw it at Fridge, it landed on top of his head. He glared as he pulled it off.

“Good luck,” Alex smiles.

“You don’t need luck. You’re going to be great.” Fridge put his two thumbs up. 

“You got this girl.” Bethany cheers as we made our way down the hill to the shed. 

I was about to walk over to the shed, when Martha pulled me behind a tree. “I’m nervous.” She whispers. 

“I’ll do all the talk, but if things get ugly. You have to do the fighting. I’m not sure Connie is good at hand to hand combat and I don’t have any knives on me.” I point to my bare thighs.

“Deal,” She nods.

We walk towards the shed. Martha was walks really weird, taking very high steps and swinging her hips too much to the point she almost threw herself off balance. “Walk normal.” I hiss as I past her to make my way to the men first. 

“ Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone? ” The one with dark brown hair ask. While the one with light brown hair cocks his gun. 

“ Hey, you guys. We went on a hike and now we’re lost. Can you guys help us? ” I smile sweetly with my hands behind my back, pushing my chest out. Martha was next to me bending over, flipping her hair while biting her bottom lip.

“ Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone? ” He asks me again.

I groan realize they were NPC, who didn’t have big roles in the video game. They had even less phrases than Nigel.

“ You guys are so interesting and funny. ” Martha giggles, playing with her hair. 

They turn their head when the group starts to make their move to the side. “Wait!” I shout making their head turn back to me. I gingerly walked over to them, when they didn’t reach for their weapons I continue on. I stood in front of the one who could talk. “We’re just here on vacation looking for a good time, would you saw us a good time.” I ran my hands down his chest to his belt. 

“ Hello, little ladies. What are you doing out here all alone? ” He looks down at me. The one holding the gun cocks it again and took a step towards Martha. The radio clicks on by itself and played Baby I Love Your Way by Bob Marley. 

“ Hey. You guys like to dance? ” She asks. I smile, dancing fighting. I turn to dance with the one that I was already standing in front of. The other throws his gun to the side to dance with Martha. 

A loud crash came from the shed. I share a look with Martha as the men we were dancing with turn their attention to the sound. I reach back to grab the knife I saw that was tucked in his belt. I pull it out and cutting him across the face. Martha kicks the guy she was dancing with in the balls. 

The guy with his cheek cut open, charges at me. I throw the knife at him. It grazed his ear and land in one of the pillars. “Oh shit.” I curse as he kept on coming. 

Martha save me when she jumps off the other guys back and kick him in the face. I ran to get the knife out of the pillar while she kicked their asses. I yanked it out and look back to see that she already knock them out cold. 

We ran into the shed. “ You should give me lessons in kicking ass. Give me a hug. ” Bethany pulls Martha into a hug. 

“You saved me, you badass goddess.” I pull her into a hug after. 

“ Yeah, give me a hug, girlfriend. ” Spencer tried to hug her, but it came out awkward.

“ As great of a moment as that is, we ain't got the time. They are coming. The motorcycle freaks are coming. Seaplane! We got to fly, man. ” Fridge ran from the window over to Alex. We follow him.

“ Nope, I can't do it. Okay? I told you, I'm not a good pilot. Maybe we should take the school bus. ” He points to the big yellow bus.

“ We can't outrun no motorcycle on no damn bus! ” Fridge throws his hands in the air. 

“ You picked the plane and hot-air balloon before. Maybe you’re supposed to pick the helicopter. ” Bethany suggests.

“ No, I can't do it. Okay? I don't want to die. I'm freaking out a little bit. ” He was having a mini anxiety attack.

“ Fine, I'll do it. How hard can it be? It's a helicopter. You... You press a button, the… They gonna spin. Okay. Then after that, I got my… The... The lever. That's how… That's how you getting the forward-backward action. Once we in the air, I'mma be all right. This, I just gotta get… 'Cause it ain't got no step stool, so… Let me see something. I can probably just… Get in, but be careful. ” He struggled just to get in the helicopter. 

“ No, you're drunk. ” I roll my eyes. 

“ Fridge, you're drunk. Give me the keys. ” Spencer went over to wrestle the keys out of his hands.

“Look Alex, you need to channel your inner Jefferson ‘Seaplane’ McDonough. Because, you might not be able to fly this helicopter but he can. Believe in him and yourself.” I grab on his jacket, not wanting him to leave us. 

“ Alex. This is where we need you. ” Martha pleads.

“ Remember, you're the missing piece. ” Bethany told him.

“ Seaplane McDonough reporting for duty, ” He put on his aviator sunglasses. “ Let's go, people. ” He jumps into the helicopter. We got in and strap ourselves in. We burst out of the barn, right when the dirt bikes showed up. 


	7. JUMANJI

I was in the back of the helicopter with Spencer, Martha, and Fridge.

The helicopter starts to drop at a fast rate. “What's wrong?” Bethany yells so Alex could hear her over the noise. 

“Something's broken!” He told us. The helicopter hit trees sending it swirling around making us scream and put our hands on the roof to gain some control. 

“Hang on!” He told us like there was anything else we could do. 

“Oh, my God, we're about to die! We're about to die!” Fridge screams in my ear as we nose dived into a canyon. Alex was able to yank it up enough, so we didn’t hit the rocky ground. We were only hovering over the ground.

“It won't go up!” He yelled back to us. 

“What do you mean?” Martha asks.

“The collective is busted.” He told us, like we know what that meant.

“What is that?” I yell. 

“It controls the plates up there, which tilts the rotors and controls the pitch. It is how we go up and down.” He explains what the part did.

The drumming started. “Why do the drums have to play now?” I whine.

“You guys? That can't be good.” Bethany grips on to the edge of her seat.

“It's no way that's good news.” Fridge peaks out of the helicopter to see what it was. “Albino rhinos! They're indigenous to Jumanji. They're huge, white, scary, and stupid, and they eat people.” He informed us about the animals that were chasing after us.

“No!” Bethany cried. 

“They're getting close!” Spencer looks out from his side of the helicopter. 

“My stomach's starting to bother me a bit.” Fridge rubs his stomach.

“Go up!” Martha yells at Alex. 

“I can't go up!” He reminds her. 

“I think I had too many margaritas.” Fridge whines.

“You better not throw up on me.” I glare at him. 

“You guys, what are we going to do?” Bethany looks back at us.

“I'll fix the helicopter. Tell me what to do.” Spencer looks to Alex.

“You got to connect the flight-control rod to the mesh plate under the rotors.” Alex explains to him.

“Flight-control rod, mesh plate, under the rotors,” Spencer repeated it to himself.

“Do you even know what those things are?” I scoff.

“I'll be right back.” He stood up on the edge of the helicopter.

“Spencer, where are you going?” Martha yells.

“Hurry up.” Fridge yells, making me slap him.

“Be careful!” Martha and I yell.

“No, no, just hurry up!” Fridge screams.

“Shut up, Fridge.” We yell. 

“You’re probably making him nervous.” I glare at him.

Rhinos started to hit the helicopter with their horns, jerking us one way then the other. Spencer feet fall off the side of the helicopter and he was hanging on by holding onto the top. 

“Spencer!” I yell as Martha tried to reach and pull his legs back. 

“Speed it up, Alex!” Fridge yells to the pilot.

“Spencer!” Martha yells. 

“Hurry! Come on, fix it!” I yell when I saw that the canyon was about to end.

“Oh, you can say that.” Fridge hisses at me. 

“Running out of time!” Alex screams out.

“Fix it, please!” Martha pleads. 

“Got it!” Spencer yells, giving Alex enough time to pull us up before we hit the wall and became rhino food. 

“We made it! You did it! I thought we were going to die.” Bethany cheers.

“That was amazing, Spencer.” I smile at him. 

“Thank you, guys.” He smiled sheepishly.

“Oops.” Fridge interrupted our happy party.

“What do you mean, oops?” I glare at him. 

“I dropped the jewel.” He admits. 

“What?” We scream at him in unison.

“How the hell did you drop it?” I rubbed my temples. 

“I leaned over, thought I had to puke, and I didn't. It came out of my backpack.” He explained, while reenacting it for us.

“We need the freaking jewel!” Bethany cried.

“I know. That's-that's-that's the crazy part 'cause I know we need it. So we're in a pickle. We're in a pickle.” He reminds us that we were in this together. It was the only reason why I wasn’t shoving him out of this helicopter. I might need to know something about a dangerous animal later.

“Alex, turn around. We got to go get it.” Spencer said, seeing that we had no other choice.

“Yeah, let's loop around. Look for it. Everybody open your eyes. Let's all look for it as a group.” Fridge put emphasis on the world group. Alex flow us back into rhino canyon. 

“There! I see it!” Bethany points. There was bright green stone. The problem was that the man eating rhinos were circling it.

“What are they doing?” Martha looks down at the beasts.

“It's like they're protecting it or something.” Spencer stares at them.

“How are we going to do this?” Alex asked, flying around the area.

“I don't know.” Spencer kept his eyes on the rhino. There was no way someone could get it without dying.

“Well, you got to go get it, right, buddy?” Fridge turns to him. I glare at him. Spencer was his buddy now that he needed him. “What do you need, your boomerang? Maybe some scissors, a pipe wrench some shoelaces? I'm your valet. Whatever you need, I can get it for you. Okay? You just say the word.” He moved over to the edge of the helicopter were Spencer was. “What?” He asks after Spencer continues to stare at him. 

“I'm sorry, buddy.” He told him.

“Sorry for what?” Fridge look confused. Spencer pushes him out. 

“What the hell is up with you guys killing each other?” I yell. I peek out the side to see the rhino chasing after Fridge. 

Alex flew over the green stone and Spencer jump out to grab it. He throws it to Martha and grab onto the landing skid. “Turn us around.” He orders. Alex tried to race to Fridge, but the rhino beat us to it. 

“NO!” I cover my eyes with my hands. 

Spencer climbs into the helicopter. “Alex, get ready to roll us to the side.” 

“What?” He looks back him like he was crazy. 

The game chimes. “When I tell you, roll 90 degrees to the right.” Spencer told him, keeping his eyes on Fridge falling from the sky. “Now!” Spencer said. Alex turns us to the side making Fridge fall past us. Spencer grabs him before he was out of reach.

“You pushed me out the helicopter, jackass!” Fridge yells. Alex put us back up right and Spencer pull Fridge back in. 

* * *

Alex landing us safe and we got out. “Oh, wow!” Spencer looks around at the view. 

“Spencer, you're amazing.” Martha compliments him.

“Thank you.” Spencer nod to her.

“You are a killer pilot, Alex.” Bethany smile at him.

“Thanks.” He gave her a smile back.

“You too, Spencer, you were incredible!” Bethany nod to him.

“You’re guys team works was top notch. No one would know you guys only know each other for a few hours.” I bounce around, pump that we were alive.

“Thank you but he was amazing, our pilot.” Spencer points to Alex.

“No man, you’re an amazing leader.” He gave the credit back to Spencer.

“Excuse me. Excuse me! I'm the one that was a human sacrifice. You don't know what's on the underside of those rhinos. And you don't want to know. I've seen a lot of things. Felt them on my face too. Things that I will never be able to erase from memory” Fridge screams, getting our attention. We giggle at the dramatic speech. “Oh, that's funny to you guys. Go ahead, laugh it up. Get it out.” He glares at us when we couldn’t stop laughing.

“Guys, I've been trying to get across this canyon for, like, 20 years, okay? Do you realize how huge this is?” Alex looks around in awe. He slaps his neck. “Mosquito,” He whispered before falling down.

“No, no, no! Alex, no, no, no!” Bethany ran over to him. 

“Alex.” Martha and I ran over to try and get him up. Martha gently slapped him a couple time in the face, trying to get him up.

“He's dying.” I show his forearm to everyone for them to see how his tattoo was fading. 

“No, we can't let him die. We're too close! Does anyone know how to do CPR?” Bethany looks around at us. 

“Camp!” I point to Spencer, remembering he said he learned it there. 

“Yeah, start with three chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. One, two, three,” He shows her with his hands how to do the chest compressions. She copied him.

“How do I do this?” She looks at Spencer for the next part.

“Okay, pinch his nose; open his mouth, full lip-lock. Ah, one breathe, two breaths, then repeat.” He instructed her. 

“Come on, Alex.” She whispers to him as she continues to give him mouth to mouth. 

“Bethany, stop. Your tattoo, it looks like you're giving him one of your lives.” Martha stops her. It was true while Alex was tattoo was coming back, Bethany was losing one of hers. 

“I'm okay with that.” She nods.

“What if you need it for yourself?” I ask her. I like Alex, but I knew Bethany longer.

“I want Alex to come home too.” She went back to giving him CPR.

He coughs before taking a deep breath as he came back to life. Bethany fell back happy that she was able to do it. “What happened?” He looks around, not understanding how he was still here.

“Alex, Bethany gave you one of her lives.” Martha informed him and helps him off the ground.

“Bethany, you okay?” I check on her.

“I think so.” She said out of breath.

“Bethany, is that true? You gave me one of your lives?” He helps her up.

“I mean, yeah, of course.” She smiles, blushing at having him so close to her.

“Thank you.” He gave her a long and tight hug, than he let her go and walk away.

Spencer’s, Fridge’s and my eyes widen. “What? What are you looking at?” She asks.

“You got a situation.” Fridge point down.

“Oh, my God, these things are crazy.” She laughs, after seeing she got her first boner. 

* * *

We split up to look around for the Jaguar. Somehow I got stuck with Fridge. Throughout this game, we were friendly, flirty, and he even kissed me. But, being on the last level reminds me that we were going back home. While I was excited to see my parents again, I knew that Fridge would go back to ignoring me. 

“Are you going to be mad at me for the rest of your life?” He snaps tired of me ignoring him like I have since I got back my camouflage mesh top, guns, and hostler from him.

“What you did to us was unforgivable, so yes I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life!” I snap.

“I did it for you.” He throws his hands up. 

“You did it for yourself, being popular meant more to you than our relationship. Spencer and I didn’t fit in with your cool friends. He’s too nerdy and I’m too fat.” I glare at him for making like he was doing me a favor. 

“Stop talking about Spencer. We both know this isn’t about him.” He put his hand up to stop me from saying anything else.

It did stop my rant. It made me ask the question that I’ve wanted to ask for the last two and a half years. “When did you know that you were going to ditch me? Was it before we had sex? Hell was it before the first kiss.” It ate at me every time I thought about it. I need to know how much of my first love was fake. 

“I knew the last weekend of summer. Remember when I took you to the fair that was in town. We saw all my teammates and their girlfriends there. The next day I went to practice, you were all they talk about. They weren’t nice thing, Jen. If I stayed with you, you would have to put up with that shit. I mean they shut up about it around me, but I can’t be there all the time. It’s better for you not to be with me and be invisible.” He explains, taking slow steps towards me like he was approaching a wild animal. 

“That should have been my choice to make not yours. Besides, I’m not invisible. I got detention because I broke Jason’s nose after he grabbed my tits.” I glare at him through the tears in my eyes. 

“What the fuck? How the hell does he not have detention?” He snaps. 

“The teacher didn’t see.” I huff, still upset about it myself.

“I’m going to beat him up the next time I see him.” He grunts making me scoff like that would do anything. “You said it should be your choice.” He ask, bring us back on track. 

“Yeah, it should have been.” I nod my head. 

“What would your choice have been?” He reaches out to grab my hand, but I move it behind my back. 

“It would have been you, it’s always been you.” I admit, hating that I could still love someone who treat me horribly. I never thought I would be that girl, even though I been that girl for years now. I never realize I was her, until now. It’s was a twist revelation for me.

He took a deep breath before asking nervously, “Even now?” 

“Yes, you think I would still be this mad if it still wasn’t you for me. There wouldn’t be this pain my chest every time I have to see you with another girl.” I wipe away the tears that were running down my face. I felt embarrassed to be confessing this to him, who knows how he would feel when this game was over. Would he go back to his popular life and forget about me again?

He cups my face and wipes the tears away for me. “There’s been others girls I’m not going to lie, but none of them got me like you do. They go out with me hoping I’ll make pros. You just wanted my time. I love you. I’m sorry for making the wrong choice.” He stretched his body to push his lips against mine. I bent down to make it easier for him. Soon after, I had to pull back laughing. “What the hell is so funny?” He asks. 

“It’s weird having to bend down to kiss you.” I crack up. 

“You laugh it up now, but soon I’m going to get the other two feet of me back.” He reaches his hands over his head to show the height he was going to gain back. 

“What is going to happen then?” I move to hover over him while I still could. 

“Oh, you’ll find out.” He looked up at me and licked his lips, which made me laugh again. It was hard to take him seriously when I knew right now if I wanted to, I could kick his ass. “You know what girl I don’t have time to play with you. I have a jaguar to find.” He turned to go further in the forest. 

I laugh following him. After wandering around a little more, we walk through some bushes to find a giant mountain with the jaguar carved in it. 

“Let go get the others.” I smile up at the mountain.

We walk along the river and caught Martha and Spencer kissing. “Come on. Hey! I don't want to see that. I don't, not today. While you're down here professing your love for one another, I found the Jaguar. Let's go.” He interrupted them. He leads us to where we last saw Alex. 

“Isn’t that a little hypocritical of you.” I whisper to him. 

“No, because I was doing that while finding that Jaguar,” He whispers back. “Come on, you guys I found the Jaguar.” He calls out to Bethany and Alex who were sitting by the riverbank talking. 

We lead them to the mountain. “There it is.” Fridge points to the jaguar.

“There it is,” Alex smiles.

“We'd better get walking.” Spencer leads the pack down there.

We end up in front of a hiking trail. “I think we just follow this path.” Bethany looks up from her map.

“No. It can't be that easy.” Alex shook his head.

“Yeah, this would be the boss level. It suppose to the hardest.” I agree with him. 

“The Defenders,” She read off the map.

“What does that mean?” Fridge asks.

“There's only one way to find out. Fridge, give me the jewel.” Spencer turns to him. He glanced at all of us, before digging it out of his bag.

“Spencer.” Martha calls to him. He nods his head, telling her he was sure. Fridge gave him the stone making the torches light up along the pathway.

The drum started to beat again. “Something's about to happen,” Martha stares at the trail, waiting for something to come out. 

“I hate those drums.” Fridge sighs.

“You can’t walk in there.” I grab Spencer's arm. 

“I’m not, because that's what the game wants us to do. Follow the path. It's a trap.” He looks around for another way to get there. 

“When you see the elephant begin the climb.” Bethany points out the elephant statue that was on the side of the trail.

“I'll go through the trees.” Spence looks up.

“The trees?” Fridge didn’t look sure. Spence nod his head.

“I don’t think that’s what it means.” I shook my head.

“That must be it. That's the move. This is the final level of the game. And I'm pretty sure this is a Bravestone thing.” He gave us a smolder before running to climb a tree.

“Did he just refer to himself in the third person?” Bethany squint her eyes at me.

“Um, fourth person, I think.” Martha watches him with concern.

“How does he do that?” Alex watch in amazement as Spencer walk along branches like it was nothing. 

“Climbing is one of his strengths.” Fridge explains.

“Oh, gotcha,” Alex nods.

“Cake makes me explode.” He shares, making Alex look at him confused.

Spencer screams and fell out of the tree to get eaten by a large cat. 

“Oh my God, you guys. Panthers,” Bethany whisper as a group of them came out of the bushes to walk towards us.

“No, those are jaguars.” Fridge corrected her.

“What do we do zoologist?” I ask him. Before he could answer, the game chimes and Spencer fell in the middle of the trial. He ran over to us. 

“Are you okay?” Martha asks.

“Yeah, I think so.” He rubs his bald head.

“You still have the jewel, right?” Alex asks.

“I got it.” He took it out of his pocket to show it to us.

“Oh, thank God.” I put a hand over my heart.

“Hey, what happened?” Fridge asks.

“I don't want to talk about it.” He shook his head. We share a look making me groan, it was a stupid squirrel.

“Okay, we need a new plan.” Bethany said. Everyone agrees on that. “Spencer, any ideas?” She turns to him.

“Can I speak with you guys for a minute?” He asks Fridge and I.

“Now?” He asks. Spencer nods his head and we follow him away from the group.

“What's going on?” I ask, once we were out of hearing distance of the others.

“I can't do this.” He shook his head.

“What are you talking about?” Fridge squints. 

“I can't do this. Okay, who am I kidding? I'm not some adventurer. I'm not actually brave.” He began to take fast breathes.

“Spencer, I just saw you hanging out of a helicopter.” He points out. 

“You catch a snake in mid air and you beat up a pack thugs.” I remind him.

“It's a lot easier to be brave when you have lives to spare. It's a lot harder… when you only have one life.” He shows us his one tattoo.

“We always only have one life, man. Okay? That's... That's all we get. That's how it works. The question is, is how are you going to live it? Which guy are you going to decide to be? Did I just quote our principal? What the hell is this game doing to me? I got to get out of here.” He looked in disbelief that something an authority figure said to him sunk in. “Look. We can do this, man. We can do it together.” He turns to Spencer, with a new focus in his eyes that said he had an idea.

“Together?” Spencer looks at us.

“Together.” Fridge nods his head.

“It’s the way we’ve been doing it our whole life, well minus two and half years.” I said making Fridge glare at the side of my head. 

“You're a good friend, Fridge.” Spencer smile at him. We went back to the group for Fridge to give his game plan. 

“Alright, I don't know video games, but what I do know is football. Now, those lightning-fast, man-eating cats out there? They're the Defenders, which means we got to run one hell of an offense.” Fridge explains.

“You guys.” Spencer point to where the dirt bike noise was coming from. “We got to go.” He hurries Fridge.

“Here's what we're going to do. We're going to fan out and run a play that I call: The Double Reverse Refrigerator. Bethany, you go up the left side. I'll go up the right. Alex, you'll draw the defense, so Spencer can go up the middle.” He gave everyone orders.

“What do we do?” I point to Martha and myself. 

“Take out those bikes.” He told us.

We nod our heads and everyone got to their position. “Fridge,” I ran over to him before he disappeared into the forest. 

“What?” He asks, waiting to see what I want.

“I really like seeing you take charge.” I bent down to give him a heated kiss before running back over to Martha. Baby, I love your way by Bob Marley started to play again as Martha did her dance fighting. I whip my knives and ninja stars at them. 

I let out a scream when I felt something tighten around my ankle and drag me across the forest floor. I look up to see a dirt bike and then to my side to see Martha being drag by another. I pull my gun from the holster and shot him three times: two in the back and one in the head because I was piss off. I was about to shot Martha’s dirt biker when Spencer came out of nowhere and hit him with a bat. He went flying clear across the jungle.

“Thanks.” She smiles at him.

“Sure.” He nods to her.

They share a longing look that was sweet, but this wasn’t the time for it. “Guys, we got company.” I nod my head to the dirt bikers approaching.

“Get to the statue. Go!” Martha orders. He picks up the dirt bike and rode off. She grabs a vine and swing to kick a few off their bikes. I shot the rest of them. After we finish them off, we ran to the mountain, where we found Van Pelt holding Bethany hostage. 

“Give me the jewel, or your friend dies.” He held a gun to her head.

I pull my machine gun around and point it at him. “You shot her and I’ll blast you and your little kitty cats.” I threaten. 

“Don't give it to him!” Bethany cried. 

“Quiet! Stop!” He growls at her making me put my finger on the trigger. 

“Take me instead, okay?” Alex steps forward making the jaguar snarl as they step towards us. While I didn’t want to kill animals, I would if I had to.

“Give me the jewel.” Van demands.

“I can't do that.” Spencer shook his head.

“Five. Four, three...” The psycho counted.

“I can't give you the jewel.” He told him. 

“Spencer.” Martha hiss.

“Two!” He counted down.

“Because I don't have it!” Spencer yells, making Van Pelt and I lower our guns.

I heard this pounding footsteps, I turn to see Fridge come out of the jungle riding on an Elephant. “Zoology, bitch!” He yells, waving the jewel around in the air.

Van Pelt sends the jaguar to attack him. The elephant shook them off easily and the rest ran away. I guess their survival instinct over rule his control on them.

I lift my gun back up when Van Pelt lift his. But, I couldn’t get a clear shot with Bethany standing in front of him. He shot at Fridge, would have gotten him too but Bethany bite his arm. But, the shoots spook the elephant and Fridge end up losing his grip on the stone. We watch as it fly towards the mountain somewhere.

“Douche bag! You suck!” Bethany pulls S.I.N.G. from Miss Congeniality. Martha and Spencer ran to get the stone.

“I’ll get Bethany, you get Fridge.” Alex told me. I nod my head, agreeing with the plan. He attacks Van Pelt who had Bethany pin to the ground.

I ran over, not knowing how I was supposed to calm an elephant. “How do I calm it down?” I ask as I dodge the angry elephant’s feet. 

“There is no calming down anything this big.” He screams, holding on tightly to the creatures back. 

I ran ahead and climb one of the trees. As the elephant past it, I reach to pull Fridge off it. While I did that, the elephant lift its head impaling my stomach with its tusk. It all happens so fast, that I didn’t have time to scream. With my last bit of strength I yank Fridge on the tree with me. 

“Oh shit.” He stares at the hole in my stomach. He helps me get down the tree as the elephant went on. He lay me on the ground and put my head on his lap. “Why did you come for me? I wasn’t in any danger on top of it.” He wipes the tears from his eyes. 

“What if it bucks you off or did this to you? It’s fine I have another life.” I hiss, wishing that death would hurry up.

“So, I don’t I like watching you die?” He glares. I disappear like Martha did and soon the game chimes. I was able to land on my feet this time. 

“Let go.” I nod. We ran back to where the others are to see Martha falling from the sky and Spencer swing around on a rope to meet her. She gave him the stone and land gracefully. 

“Yas Martha.” I clap my hands for her. 

“Go Spencer!” Fridge screams. 

He slammed the gem back into place. We look around waiting for something to happen. “What the heck? We beat the game.” I scream in frustration. 

“Call out its name.” Bethany whispers beside me.

“Call out its name!” I yell, realizing she was right.

“Call out its name, everyone!” Bethany orders. 

“Jumanji!” We scream out. A green light waves came from the stone, turning Van Pelt into dust and bring light back to the place. It looks like paradise now, instead of a natural disaster. 

“I think we did it,” Martha smiles. 

“I think we won.” Fridge pulls me into a hug.

“I think we did.” Bethany smile along with everyone else.

“Guys its Nigel,” Alex points to a familiar jeep coming towards us.

He got out of his jeep and walk over to us. “Well done, intrepid adventurers! You lifted the curse! All of Jumanji thanks you. Your work here is done. So, sadly, this is where we part. Seaplane McDonough, let me shake your hand.” He held his hand out. Alex look back to smile at us one last time before shaking the man’s hand. He turn into little dots and got sucked up into the sky. 

“Adieu, Professor Oberon.” He held his hand out to Bethany. 

“Later, dude.” She looked down to whisper to her penis before taking Nigel’s hand. She too got sucked up into the sky.

“I'll miss you the most, my little Mouse.” He didn’t even get to reach his hand out before Fridge was stepping to him.

“Get me the hell out of here.” He took the man’s hand and left too.

“It was a pleasure, Connie.” He held out his hand for me.

“It will be a pleasure when I get the hell out of here.” I grab his hand and sigh with happiness as I got lifted up into the sky.


	8. Home Sweet Home

I open my eyes to see I was back in the high school storage room. I was in my own curvy body. I look around to see everyone was back with me in detention.

“Oh, my God. Yes, yes, yes! Yes, yes! I'm back, baby!” Fridge fist pumped. 

“I will never complain about my body ever again.” Bethany rubs her stomach. “Oh, thank God. Oh, I missed you.” She squeezes her boobs.

I look down in agreement with her. It funny being in my dream body help me appreciates the one I have now. I always thought girls like Bethany were beautiful so that must mean I’m not. But from being in both body types I was able to see that the thin didn’t cancel out the curvy. We could both be beautiful at the same time. 

For so long, I was focused on what I didn’t have instead of being happy with what I had. I may not have Connie’s long legs and flat stomach, but I did have curves. It was time that I embrace them.

I gasp, as I felt myself get lifts up and put on the table covered in magazine. Fridge move his hands from the back of my thighs to the cup my face. He kissed me, letting his hands drop around my waist to pull me close. I wrap my legs around his waist and arms around his neck to help give me leverage to kiss him back. “I told you what I was going to do when I got my height back.” He pulled back enough to whisper to me. He pushes me, so I was laying flat on my back on the table. 

“No, we’re still here!” Martha scream, covering her eyes. Fridge helps me get off the table and put me back on my feet.

“What the hell is going on?” Spence shrieks as he pulls at his curls. 

“They’re a thing you didn’t know.” Bethany smirks. Martha nods, alongside her. 

“What? Since when?” He looked at me. 

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later.” I scratch the back of my neck. 

“Where's Alex?” Bethany looks around for him, but he wasn’t in the room.

“Let check his house, if I was him that where I would go.” I walk towards the door. 

“We can’t leave yet, we got the magazines. And look at the clock, no time even past.” Martha said. I look up at the wall to see that she was right. We each grabbed a stapler remover and move as fast as we could. 

When Principal Bentley came to tell us we could go, we speed out and down the street to the freak house. “Wait, look.” Spencer points to a big white house were the freak house used to be and it was decorated for Christmas. 

“Freak House?” Fridge stares up at it.

“Do you think...?” Spencer wonders.

“That means, maybe...” Bethany had the same thought process.

A silver car pulls up with a Christmas tree strap to the top. “Grandpa!” A girl came running out of the car to hug Mr. Vreeke. The same man who didn’t look like he showered in weeks that warns us of the evils of the world this morning. Except now, he looked clean and healthier. A woman got out of the car taking the little girl into the house to see her grandma. A man came out of the car, wearing a metallic shirt.

“Alex?” Bethany whispers.

“Hey, Dad, when you get a sec could you give me a hand?” He called out to the man as he put on a jacket.

“Yeah,” The older man walks over to start untying the tree.

He looks down the street to see us standing there. “Hey, Dad, will you give me a second?” 

He looked over to see where his son was looking. He was confused as to why he would want to talk to us, but he agrees anyways. “Oh yeah, sure.” 

“I'll be right back.” He walks over to us with a car seat in his hand. “Bethany?” He points at the blonde, who nods smiling at him. “Spencer?” He points to my nerdy friend. 

“Yeah,” He nods.

“Connie?” He points to me. 

“Cutthroat, why do people always want to leave cutthroat out.” I joke, making him laugh. 

“Ruby Roundhouse?” He points to the last girl in the group. She nods, laughing. “And that would make you Fridge.” He points to the tall ex football player. Fridge put his hand in the air, as if saying obviously it me. We share a laugh at see each other in real life. I wonder if this was what it was like when people meet their gamer friend in real life.

“I'm stoked to see you. All of you.” He smiles at all of us. 

“You made it back.” Bethany grips the straps of her backpack. 

“Yeah, I did. It spit me out right where I started, so 1996.” Alex told us. I nodded my head. It spat us out at the exact moment it sucked us in. So, why wouldn’t it do the same for him?

“And your parents and your house?” Spencer look at the freaking house, still amazed at how different it looked.

“Yeah, they... all good bro,” He nods. 

“You're an adult now. You have a family.” Bethany looked down at the baby in the car seat.

“I do, yeah. This is Andy.” He told us the baby's name. “And then my daughter… My daughter's name is Bethany. We named her after the girl who saved my life.” He smiled at her. She looks so honor for that. “So stoked,” He laughs. 

We talk for a while, before going our separate ways. Alex went in his dad’s house. Martha and Bethany walk off together, since they actually live by each other. Spencer took off in another direction since he was going to his dad’s house.

Leaving, Fridge and I to walk home together. “You don’t have to walk me home, it past your house.” I told him, as we were walking past his house. 

“No, it fine. Once I go in there I’ll be ground until the end of time. It can wait.” He shook his head. We walk to my house in silence, not knowing what to say. I had my guard back up being back in the real world. I wonder if he even knew what he was going to do come Monday. 

Soon, we were in front of my house. “I want you to know that things are going to be different this time.” He told me. I slowly nodded my head, not sure if I should believe him or not. “I mean it. I need you to know that. Like I said when I go home, I’ll be ground for a while. So, I won’t be able to call you all weekend. I don’t want you to think I’m ghosting you again. I’m going to see you, Monday and everyone is going to know you’re my girl. I promise you that.” He leans down to give me a kiss. 

“I’ll hold you to that.” I smile up at him. 

“Good.” He kissed me one more time before walking away. “I’ll see you, Monday.” He called over his shoulder. 

I walk into my house and gave my mom and dad a big hug. 

* * *

It was Monday, Spencer and I were walking to school. “I still think we should have stopped by Fridge’s house.” He said.

“No, if we see him at school and he acknowledges us, great, if not, whatever, at least there will be no public humiliation.” I shook my head. Despite his promise, I still didn’t want to get my hopes up.

“I think you need to give him more credit.” He stuck up for his friend.

“We’ll see.” I look around for him as we walk onto the front yard of the school. 

“Yo.” Fridge came running up from behind us. He fist bump Spencer and throw an arm around my shoulders.

“Yo.” Spencer said back, shooting me a smug look.

I roll my eyes at him before turns to Fridge. “Morning,” I look up at him. He bent down to give me a peck on the lips. 

I pull away, smiling from ear to ear. I look around to see a lot of people’s jaw drop when they saw Fridge’s arm around me, especially the jocks and cheerleaders who looked like they were about to have a stroke. I laugh, shaking my head at them. 

“What’s so funny?” Fridge pulls me closer.

“It weird, I thought I would get annoyed with people being shocked that you were with me, but it kind of amusing.” I chuckled. 

“They probably think you’re going crazy: get kicked off the football team now you’re hanging out with a nerd and dating a fat girl.” Spencer laughs. 

“Don’t call her fat.” Fridge glares at him. 

“He’s just talking from their perspective.” I bump him with my hip. Spencer was never malicious with me about my weight.

We stop when we saw Bethany talking to Lucinda. “Hey.” Spencer calls out to her. She waved bye to her friend before running towards us. Watching Lucinda shock face at Bethany coming over to us made me smirk. 

“Hey!” I move out from under Fridge’s arm to give her a hug. 

“Hello.” She wave at everyone. 

“Hey.” Fridge nod to her as he put his arm back where it was around my shoulders. We started to walk again, making our way to the entrance of the school. 

“So, uh, anything interesting happens lately?” She gave us a big smile.

“No, I can't think of anything.” Spencer shook his head. We giggle at our little inside joke.

“Have you guys talked to Martha?” He asks us.

“I’ve been texting her.” I nod, although I told him that already. I even gave him her number. 

“Oh, I was texting her this weekend. We girls have a group chat. Have you talked to her?” Bethany asks Spencer. He shook his head.

“Hey. There she is.” Fridge nods to Martha who was walking with her head down.

“Go get that girl, Dr. Bravestone.” Bethany nudges him.

He walks over to her, she smiles when she saw him. They talk for a little while, before Spencer grabs her face and kissed her. 

“Smoldering,” Fridge smirks. We laugh, happy to see our friends happy. The drums start beating, putting all of us on edge.

We grab the game console and bowling ball from the storage room. We took it out back. Fridge drops the bowling ball on top of the console crushing it into pieces as we cheered.


	9. Epilogue

It was two days before Christmas. It was our turn to host. Martha, Spencer, and their little girl Ruby were staying with us. “So, what is it like having a pet raccoon?” Martha stirs the hot chocolate that she was making for everyone. Martha, end up becoming an author, who hobby was mixed martial arts. She was on the bestseller list multiple times for her series about an adventure named, Dr. Smolder Bravestone. Her latest novel was called, Jumanji. 

“It's like having another toddler. Right when you’re about to explode because they won’t stop touching everything, they do something cute that makes your heart melt.” I brought out mugs for everyone. 

Anthony, or Fridge as Spencer still calls him, became a zoologist. He was a freelancer, so he works for the zoo, farms, and a bunch of wildlife rescues. Six months ago, he came home with a raccoon that didn’t have any front legs. He told me about how he couldn't get rehabilitated back into the wild and he needs a forever home. Once the kids saw him, I knew he was going to be a part of the family. 

“How does he touch when he has no front paws?” She pours the hot chocolate into the mugs. 

“With his mouth or his feet, trust me, he finds a way.” I put a few tiny marshmallows in each of them. I put them on two trays with crackers, extra marshmallows, and napkins. “Come on, Rocket.” I call to the raccoon who was napping under the dining room table. He got up on his hind legs and follows us outside.

“Hot chocolate!” Martha calls out. 

“Mommy, mommy mini fridge hit me in the face with a snowball.” Connie, my five year old daughter came running up to me. She did have snow all over her face.

I stop myself from scoffing at the nickname Spencer gave my oldest kid coming out of her mouth. I put the tray down on the picnic table. I grab a napkin to wipe off her face.

“It really was an accident mom, I swear.”  Franklin , who was seven, came running up after her. 

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault I shouldn’t have duck.” Ruby, who was the same age as my son, hung her head. She was like Spencer in the sense that she always saying sorry and she had his curly hair.

“Is he going to get punished?” Connie stomps her feet. 

“Should you get punished for accidentally step on your brother’s foot yesterday?” I ask her. 

“No.” She shook her head. 

“Alright then, now sit down and enjoy your hot chocolate.” I had them take a seat on the table, before they each got their drink.

“Amazing job, babe,” My husband wraps his arms around my waist and gave me a kiss on the cheek. 

“Were you hiding in Rocket’s enclosure?” I turn around in his arms to look up at him. 

“No. I came out now and not before because we were almost done installing the heater in his little house in there.” He pointed towards the enclosure that took up one fourth of the backyard. I look over to see that there was a little gray machine hook up to the dog house. 

“That maybe, but I know you didn’t want to settle that fight.” I reach up to poke his nose.

“I can’t help it. I’m just a mouse while you’re cutthroat.” He leans down to give me a kiss. Our son pretending to gag made us pull apart laughing. We took a seat at the table next to our kids.

“Dad, how come Rocket has to get locked up on Christmas?” Frank asks. 

“He doesn’t have to, he might. We don't know how he’s going to react with all those people around him. It’s for his and our safety.” The one thing Anthony always stretches to the kids and me was that Rocket was an animal that had different behavioral instincts than us. I honestly had a harder time grasping that then the kid. I find it difficult to treat him like he a wild animal when I hand feed him, bath him, and play with him. 

“How’s the bakery doing?” Spencer asks from the spot between his wife and daughter.

“Doing really well, I actually had to turn down orders for the Christmas Yule logs.” I smile. It was always nerve-racking when I put out a new recipe. While most did well, this one did the best. I have my little taste testers to thank for that.

“I helped. I’m the reason there cinnamon in it.” Frank points proudly at himself.

“I helped too. I help mom pick the design.” Connie chirp in.

“Teamwork makes the dream work.” I bent over to give them each a kiss on the forehead. Frank wipes his off while Connie beams up at me. 

Anthony picked rocket up and put him on his lap to feed him a cracker. “He’s so cute, like a tiny furry person.” Spencer stares down at the raccoon in his best friend’s lap. 

“I know. Bethany is going to lose her mind when she sees him.” I giggle, remembering how she coo over him when I face time her.

“When is she getting here?” Martha asks.

“Her plane lands tomorrow, she finishes her shooting yesterday.” I told them. Bethany was nature photography. A lot of her work was to raise awareness. Her latest project was about garbage and pollution in the ocean. 

“Is Alex coming?” Spencer asks. 

“Yes, he is coming.” Anthony sneers.

“What’s wrong with you?” He narrows his eyes.

“Did you know he offered to be my wife’s backup boyfriend?” He hissed.

“What? When?” Spencer’s jaw dropped. 

“Uncle Alex is your boyfriend, mommy?” Connie looks up at me with curiosity in her eyes.

“No.” I shook my head at her before turning to Spencer. “When we had detention together, that makes it about 15 years ago. The man is coming here with his wife, children, and grandchildren. Let it go.” I said the last part to my husband. 

“I only found out two days ago.” He put up two fingers.

“Why did you even tell him?” Martha snickers. 

“Because of your book, missy, he wanted to know why Seaplane and Cutthroat were together.” I put the blame on her.

“It was more than that. You both said there was a pull to one another. Alex felt it for the other one too. My theory is because the characters were supposed to be together.” She explains why she put them together. 

“Uncle Spencer, are you going to make a video game out of Auntie’s book? I think it would be awesome.” Frank asks him. The kids loved the books, because they thought the characters were named after them. 

“I don’t know. I feel like it would be more stressful to play than fun.” He ran a hand through his thick curls. Spencer was a video game designer now. He has been getting that question a lot lately, especially since he made games for the other books.

“I don’t know, I think some great things would come out of it.” Martha throws a knowing look at her husband. 

“I think some great things already did.” Fridge wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave my temple a kiss. We, adults, share a laugh while our kids look at us confused. 


	10. Where is Spencer?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Next Level: Going home for the holidays was exciting for most people. Jennifer was a part of that majority. She was ready to reunite with her family and friends. What she wasn’t ready for was a reunion with Jumanji.

I was in class piping macarons when I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. After I finish piping and put them in the oven, I check it. I smile to see I got a notification on the Jumanji group chat. I opened it to see that Bethany sent a picture of a beautiful forest that had a mountain with a waterfall in the background. She captions it with, ‘Leaving this to come to see you and I can’t wait.’ 

Martha texted: So excited. 

Anthony texted: Brunch Saturday at Nora’s?

I texted: Yes, let’s go to Brunch. I can’t wait to see you, girls and Spencer.

Anthony texted: Oh, so you can wait to see me?

I texted: I see you every day with an emoji sticking its tongue out.

Martha texted: I’ll go to Nora’s if you keep the couple cuteness to a minimum LOL with a vomiting emoji. 

I texted: We’ll try and put an emoji that was winking. The oven beeps after Martha and Beth texted that they were coming. I put my phone back in my pocket to get the macaroons out of the oven. 

* * *

“I DON’T SEE WHY YOU’RE SO MAD! I’M NOT GOING TO THE PARTY I THOUGHT YOU’D BE HAPPY!” Anthony looks away from the road to shout over my screaming voice. 

I took a deep breath to calm myself down, so I could get my point across. “I’m mad because you just told me that you’re not going to your high school friend’s reunion party because you don’t trust yourself.” 

“Without you there, I don’t. I’m being responsible and not putting myself in a stupid situation, I thought you would be glad.” He parks in front of Nora’s. It reminds me that today was supposed to be a good day. We were home for the holiday break and meeting up with our friends. But, then he told me that stupid shit and expected me to be happy.

“Why would I be glad that my boyfriend can’t go to a party without cheating on me? You don’t have a problem going to college events without me, so what? Do you have feelings for an old flame?” I glared at him as I waited for his answer.

“What? No, I just know how those guys are. I’m not trying to get pressured to do anything I don’t want to do.” He explained it better than the first time, where he just said I didn’t trust myself.

I sigh, I didn’t want to go in there with bad energy and make things awkward for everyone else. Anthony really didn’t do anything wrong, besides making my jealous flare-up. “If you want to go, I’ll go with you.” I didn’t want to go to that party with a bunch of people who made fun of me, but if he wanted to meet up with his friends I would put up with it for one night.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t want to go but I feel like I should.” He sighs.

“We can go for like an hour,” I suggested.

“I guess. Let’s not think about it now. We’re meeting up with the Jumanji crew.” He opened his door and went around to open mine. 

“Thanks.” I grab his hand to get out of the car and walk into Nora’s. “Spencer texted you back, right?” We sat down at a round table that had five chairs.

“Yeah, he said he would see us here.” He sat down.

“Good, I’ve been worried about him lately. I feel like I got to text or call him 10 times for him to get back to me.” I pick up a menu.

“I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably busy with college like all of us are.” He shrugs it off like always when I brought it up. I hoped that he was right.

I looked over at the door when the bell hanging above it rang. I jumped out of my seat and ran over to hug Beth. “You look incredible.” I lean back to look at her.

“Not as good as you.” She shook her head. Anthony got up to hug her.

The bell rang again and Martha came in. Beth and I tackled her into a hug. “Hey.” She giggles into our ears. 

“Hi!” I cheered as I let her go.

“Oh my god, you look amazing.” Beth looks Martha over. She did, you could tell she had a lot more confidence than she did when she graduated from high school six months ago. She was walking with her head held high. She had a new haircut and clothes.

“I love the nose ring.” I nod to the newest accessory.

“Thank you.” She smiles. “Fridge,” She cheers as she hugs him before we all sit down.

* * *

“So, we were building houses for two months, and then on the way home, we stopped in Costa Rica, which was also amazing.” Bethany was telling us about the amazing study abroad program she was doing.

“That is so awesome. I am so happy for you. That is so cool.” Martha smiles at her. 

“So, ‘M’ that’s what we’re supposed to call you now?” Fridge asked. It’s what all her college friends were calling her in the Instagram comments.

“You don’t have to. It’s just a nickname. One of my college friends gave me that. You don’t have to call me that if you don’t want to.” She shook her bad bashfully. 

“M, I love it. It’s so hot.” Bethany smiles and winks at her.

“Oh, is there a sexy story behind it?” I lean my elbows on the table and put my head on my hands.

“No, she just called me it one day and it caught on for some reason.” She laughs.

“But you and Spencer, you’re still not….?” Anthony asks her. It was the biggest question in his mind. He wanted to ask Spencer, but he wasn’t here.

“Yeah… No. We’re….we’re still, like, taking a break.” Martha looked down at her menu.

“Where is he by the way?” Beth checked her phone. The rest of us follow her example. 

“Nothing,” I sighed. I looked over to see that Anthony didn’t have any notification either.

“Have umm… have you been in touch with Spencer much?” Martha looks at Fridge and I since we were the closest to him. 

He tried to think of the last conversation he had with his childhood best friend and found that it wasn’t recently. “You know what, not actually?” He couldn’t believe that he never realized it.

“I text him a lot, but he doesn’t always text me back,” Beth told her. 

“Same here, I have to blow up his phone for him to answer,” I explain to her.

“I know.” Martha nods that it was the same for her. She was hoping that it was because he felt awkward about the breakup.

“It’s just I’ve been crazed lately with, you know, classes and practices, and I got games on weekends.” He explains why he didn’t notice that Spencer was ghosting them.

“Yeah, totally,” She nods that she understands. “I’ve just… I’ve been… I’ve been a little worried about him.” 

“Me too, when he does pick up after I call him a few times in a roll, he is always so agitated and moody. And, for the little while I can keep him on the phone, he refused to talk about himself.” I look down at my cup of coffee. It breaks my heart to think he was alone and miserable in a big city like New York. It made me wonder if I should have followed him there like we originally plan too. After Fridge ditched us, we made a pact to stick together. He would go to college and I would go to a culinary school in the same city. But, Jumanji happened and Anthony was back in our lives. Spencer insisted that I should be in the same city as my boyfriend. It sucked that their scholarships took them to different places.

“Okay, look, where is this guy? For real,” He put down his fork to call him again, but he didn’t get an answer.

“After this, we should just show up at his house,” I suggested. 

“Yeah,” Martha agrees along with the other two. We ate the rest of our food in silence before getting in Mrs. Johnson’s car to head over to Spencer’s. 

We got out of the car and walked up to his door. I rang the doorbell. “Grandpa Eddie?” Anthony and I were surprised by the short old man answering the door.

“Anthony? Jennifer?” He looked at our faces that were familiar to him. 

“Yes, sir, it’s me.” Anthony nods to him.

“Anthony! Jennifer! How are you? I heard you two are sleeping together now.” He smiles at us.

“Yeah….we’re good. We’re just looking for Spencer.” I smile back at him. I didn’t want to have a sex talk with Grandpa Eddie.

“Come on in. Come on in.” He waves as he moves out of the way.

“Don’t tell him we were at Nora’s,” I whisper to them before going inside. 

“Why?” Martha whispers back. 

“Just don’t.” I hissed. 

“How are you doing?” Anthony asks after watching the old man struggle to get to the next pillar in the house.

“Oh, getting old sucks. Don’t ever let anyone tell you any different.” He told us his new motto.

“Oh, this is Martha and Bethany. This is Spencer’s grandfather, Eddie.” Anthony introduces the two girls.

“Martha? You’re the little girlfriend.” He points at the redhead. 

Fortunately for her, another man came in so she didn’t have to answer, “Morning.” 

“Morning sir, sorry to barge in on you,” Anthony nodded to the man.

“You’re not barging. He’s barging.” Eddie points to his ex-best friend.

“Milo Walker,” The man introduces himself.

“Wait, Milo? Like, like Milo and Eddie’s.” Anthony put it together.

“Sore subject, babe,” I whisper while elbowing him. 

“Pleased to meet you,” Milo nods. From what Ms. Gilpin told me, they used to be the real-life Felix and Oscar. 

“Man, my dad said you guys had the best restaurant in town.” Anthony’s dad always brought the place up if you mention looking for a good place to eat in town. He went over to shake Milo’s hand. “We were just there. Well, it's called Nora’s now.” 

“Nora’s, it’s barely even a restaurant. It’s more like a breakfast place now.” Eddie grumbles.

“He needs to learn to listen to me,” I whisper to Beth and Martha. They nod their head, seeing now why Nora’s is to not be brought up.

“Were you with Spencer?” He looked over at Anthony.

“No, we came here looking for him, actually.” He told him.

“Are you all hungry? I got eggs on the griddle.” Milo asked.

“Might have to take a look,” Anthony smiles.

“Hey man, you can do more than take a look at it.” Milo led him to the kitchen.

“Alright, alright, my man,” He was happy to follow him, despite the fact that he just ate a big meal.

Bethany and I follow them as Eddie struggles in front of us. He had to use the couch to help himself walk. “Do you need a hand?” Bethany asked.

“Do I look like I need a hand?” Eddie shouted at her. 

“Yes,” I whisper as he knocks over things on his way to the kitchen. 

“I’m going to check on Martha.” Beth pointed to the stairs that Martha thought she sly went up without us noticing. I nod as she went after the redhead.

“Hey, babe, come and taste these eggs, they're amazing. They're fluffy and cheesy.” He moans as he shoves more into his mouth.

“I can’t if you eat all of them.” I walk in front of him. I open my mouth for him to put a fork full of eggs in. “These are really good.” I hummed.

“Look at them. He used to run around trying to put mud in her hair. Now, he is feeding her.” Eddie pointed at us as he sat down at the table.

“Its how all young love starts,” Milo smiles at us.

My smile turned into a frown when I heard a familiar drumming sound. “We’re going check on the girls.” I walk to the stairs. Anthony put down the plate to follow.

“Do you hear that?” He asked the girls as they ran down the stairs.

“Yes,” Bethany said. Martha nods. Them all hearing it made me anxious if it was just me I could write it off as my imagination, but all of us hearing it made it real.

We follow the drumming noise to the basement. We were shocked and scared to see the broken game console. “How did it even get here?” Bethany asked.

“I don’t know.” Anthony glares at the thing. “Maybe he… I don’t know, maybe he went back for it or something?” 

“He must have or it wouldn’t be here. Or maybe his mom saw it and thought he would be interested in fixing it.” I came up with possibilities.

“How would his mom see it when we throw it in the trash?” Beth asked. 

“You’re right, it had to be him. Why would he do this?” I sigh.

“Is he trying to fix it?” Beth stares at it. 

“Why would anyone try to fix that thing?” He glances at us briefly before putting his eyes back on the console.

“He must be. It looks more put together than how we left it.” I lean in closer to get a better look.

“Don’t get too close.” He pulls me back. 

“I don’t know. Maybe he went to buy parts or something.” Bethany looks back to the stairs hoping that he would come down any second.

“Okay, I’m calling him again. I’m sure everything is… fine” He took out his phone and called Spencer. It was clear that everything wasn’t fine when we heard a buzzing sound. 

Martha went over to take his phone out of his jacket’s pocket, “Fourteen texts and four missed calls.” We share a look of dread for where our friend was. “I don’t think he went out. I think… I think he went back in.” 

“No, no, no.” Anthony shook his head. 

“What, no! Why!” Beth freaks out.

“How bad can New York be for him?” I yell.

“Why would he do that?” Bethany pulls at her hair.

“Come on. Remember what it was like in there?” Anthony started to pace.

“I got eaten by a fricking hippo.” Beth would never forget that agonizing pain. 

“I got killed by a piece of cake!” He yelled. You would think being trampled by rhinos would be at the forefront of his mind.

“Monkey fur made me explode,” I shouted. While the elephant tusk was more painful, I don’t regret it because I saved Anthony doing it.

“Guys! Guys! How is he going to get out?” Martha brought them back to the problem at hand.

“He’s got to take the... the green jewel,” Anthony remembers their task.

“And stick it back in the statue thing.” Beth finished it for him.

“By himself,” Martha asked. We share a look that I’m sure warriors give each other when they hear they’re being deployed again. “We got to go get him.” She walked over to the game. 

“Are you crazy?” Anthony yelled.

“I’m coming with you.” Bethany nods.

“I’m coming too.” I walk over and put a hand on Martha’s shoulder. 

“Are all of you out of your minds?” He asked. 

“We can do this. We’ve been there. We know what to expect.” Martha points out to him.

“Yeah, this time will be a walk in the park.” I nod. We wouldn’t have to guess what the right move is this time, we would know.

“I gotta stop hanging out with white people. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me.” He was talking to himself now.

“They’re right. We played before and we won.” Bethany walks over to stand on the other side of Martha.

“We barely survived.” He reminds us. 

“You know he would do it for you,” I shouted at him.

“He would do it for any of us,” Martha adds on to my point.

“Let’s be honest, he would do it for a stranger.” I sigh. My best friend had to be the nicest, smartest, stupidest guy I know. 

He let out a sigh but didn’t move. I smile at him before turning back to the console. “Be careful. It looks pretty busted.” He said. Martha grabs a controller for it to send out a green spark. She drops it. We let out a startled yell, not expecting to act up right away. 

The old TV turns itself on. Through a static screen and sound, it said Welcome to Jumanji. “What?” I looked down to see that the green light was taking me into the game.

“We haven’t even picked our guys yet!” Anthony protested. He wanted to be someone else besides the backpack guy this time.

“Okay, Okay. Here we go. Oh, I hate this part. Alright, Okay.” Martha looks down at the green mist surrounding her.

“If I’m not Connie, I will cut someone’s throat.” I threaten before getting completely sucked in.


	11. Body Mix-Up

I fell from the sky, screaming the same way I did last time, but this time I was able to land on my feet. I never thought I would be [happy](https://urstyle.fashion/styles/2186865) to see this mesh camouflage crop top and short shorts again. But if I had to come back to Jumanji, I wanted it to be through her. “Hello, Connie,” I whisper to my video game model-thin body.

“Jennifer.” I look up to see Ruby Roundhouse. 

“Martha.” I ran over to hug her. 

We turn around to see Dr. Bravestone. “Spencer.” We sighed in relief that we don’t have to go searching for him. 

“Spencer?” He said with a thick New Jersey accent.

“What in the tarnation?” Franklin sat up and spoke very slowly.

“Anthony?” I tilted my head as I looked down at the shorter man. Since when did he use words like tranation, normally it was what the hell.

“Fridge?” Martha looks at him in confusion.

“Where am I?” Franklin looked around.

“What the hell is this?” Bravestone looks around too. 

“Oh my god,” Martha and I share a look of panic as we realize who was in front of us. 

“Eddie.” Franklin recognized his friend’s voice.

“Who the hell are you?” Eddie playing as Bravestone questions Milo who was playing as Franklin.

“I’m Milo Walker. Who are you?” He looks up at him.

“Milo?” Eddie stares down at his friend. His friend was never that short. When Milo was sitting down and he was standing up, they were eye to eye.

“What on earth? What… wait for a minute,” Milo got up. It seems the same thought occurred to them at the same time if he looks like that then what do I look like. They look down to take in the different bodies they were in at the moment. 

“This is going to be so much harder than last time.” I put my head on Martha’s shoulder.

“That means that Spencer is playing as Professor Shelby,” Martha said.

“Then we have to find him quickly.” I throw my head back groaning. All Shelby could do was read the map. Even though Spencer was an amazing player, Shelby wouldn’t give him much to work with. “Wait, didn’t Anthony get sucked in the game,” I remember him complaining about not being able to pick a character.

“Maybe he didn’t. It just picked people on its own.” Martha thought it did too, but she was obviously wrong. 

“Pardon me?” Milo turned when he heard different voices.

“Who are you two?” Eddie points at us.

“You’re Spencer’s grandfather.” Martha points at Bravestone.

“Yeah, no kidding.” He was looking at us but feeling his arms.

“And you are Milo.” I point at Franklin.

“I certainly am.” He nods. 

“I’m Martha… Spencer’s...” She wasn’t sure what to call herself.

“You’re the little girlfriend.” He didn’t believe that his grandson could get someone that hot.

“That makes you.” Milo points at me.

“I’m Jennifer.” I waved.

“Little Jenny from down the block.” Eddie stares at the blonde bombshell.

I looked up when I heard screaming. “Look out,” Martha warns them. 

“What?” Milo got smashed by Professor Shelby.

“That hurt like a goddamn…” Shelby rubs his stomach as he gets up.

“Spencer?” I asked.

“Bethany?” Martha called.

“What I’m not… No. No. No. No.” He looks down and screams when he sees what body he was in. “Yo. Oh no, no, no. This can’t be happening!” He shouted to the sky.

“I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that Fridge.” I bite my bottom lip.

“Yes, I’m Fridge, god damn it! The hell, man?” He throws his hands in the air.

“Okay, something went wrong,” Martha states the obvious. 

“The game is busted.” I should have gone over to Spencer’s house last night instead of showing off to my family that I knew how to make cream puffs now. 

“You think!” He yells. He already warns us about going into the game. He made eye contact with Milo. “Holy shit… If I’m… then you…?” He points at him, and then turns to point at Bravestone, “Spencer?” 

“Why does everybody keep calling me Spencer?” Eddie yells in frustration.

“No, that is Grandpa Eddie and that is Milo.” I pointed at them as I said their names.

“Pleased to meet you,” Milo smiles at him.

“You meet him already, this is Anthony, we call him, Fridge,” I told him.

“Why Fridge,” He asked.

“I don’t know. It’s a football nickname.” I shrug.

“Where is Bethany? And where is Spencer?” Anthony asked.

“I don’t know. Okay? The game, it didn’t let us pick our avatars, so...” Martha shrugs. She was only in the game minutes before him.

“Because it’s busted,” He reminds us.

“Yeah, okay.” She snaps, tired of him throwing it in her face that he was right about touching the game.

“Are we dead?” Eddie asked.

“You know, I was just wondering the same thing. Did I die and turn into some kind of a small, muscular boy scout?” Milo looks down at his outfit. 

“We’re not dead,” Martha told them.

“So then what’s going on here?” Eddie yells. Sometimes I think that the only volume that he knew.

“Okay, this is going to sound very strange, but we are in a video game called, Jumanji,” Martha explains to them.

“We are in the bodies of video game characters. You know me, Eddie. I’m not blonde.” I twirled my ponytail around.

“Fridge, Jenny, and I have been here before with Beth and Spencer,” Martha told them.

“Last time, I was you.” Anthony points at Milo. Milo nods like that made sense to him.

“Huh?” Eddie yelled out with a confused face.

“We’re in a game,” Anthony shouted. We need them to get their minds wrapped around the concept, so we could move on. “We got to find Spencer because he’s in here too.” 

“Spencer?” Eddie tilts his head.

“Yes.” Martha nods.

“He’s in here?” He points to the ground.

“Yes. We just don’t know exactly where because he has a head start. But, we should be able to catch up because he needs our character’s skill sets.” I explain.

“Spencer, Eddie’s grandson,” Milo wanted to make sure it was the same one. 

“Yes, Spencer.” Martha sighs.

“He’s here too?” Eddie asked again.

“Yes!” Martha and I shouted.

“Yes, He’s here and we got to find him.”Anthony went on to say.

“So, it’s like a hide-and-go-seek situation,” Milo smiles. “I’m not it.” He put his hands up. 

Eddie started to move his hips around like he was hula hooping. “My hip feels pretty good now. Oh, my joints feel like butter.” 

“Oh yeah, look at those.” Milo high stepped and Eddie copied him. “Look at these. Look at what I got.” They stretch their body around in ways they couldn’t for years.

“We have some issues here.” Martha turns to Anthony and me.

“You’re telling me this? I’m the old fat dude.” He points down at his body. “I came back, and things actually got worse. At least last time I was still black.” He points to where Milo was standing before, but he wasn’t there. We looked around to search where he went.

“Look at this fella,” Milo coos. 

I turned my head to the direction of his voice to see that he was standing by the river with a hippo looking at him. “Oh no, get back.” I ran to pull him from the edge of the water. It charges up and snaps its jaws making us fall to the side, but out of its reach. 

“Hey,” Anthony threw a coconut into his mouth and it retreated into the river. “Get on, out of here!” 

“I will never complain about having to watch and hear about football constantly ever again.” I got up off the ground.

“What just happened?” Milo sat on the ground, staring at the water. 

“What the hell was that thing?” Eddie shouted.

“Well that there was a hippopotamus. And they are awfully fast, faster than a horse if you can believe that. And they’ve got an awful ferocious bite. How about that? You know, the funny thing is I don’t remember knowing much about hippos until right now.” Milo informed us in his slow pace voice.

“You’re a zoologist,” Anthony told him.

“I’m sorry, what now?” Milo got up from the ground.

“Are we in Florida?” Eddie looked around the place.

“Just listen. This is a dangerous place, Crazy Dangerous. But, Martha, Jenny, and I, we’ve been here before. We know what we’re doing. You have to stay alert all the time. If I’m near water, I got one eye on the water, you hear me? You gotta have eyes in the back of your….” Anthony didn’t get to finish his speech because a giant snake came down from the tree above him and bit his head to pick him. 

“Oh god,” Martha cried. I cringe as it swallows him whole. 

“What in the Sam Hill just happened to him?” Milo gasps.

“Sam Hill?” I remind myself to Google the name when I get home. 

The game chimed and Anthony fell from the sky and landed on his back. “Shut the front door.” Milo looked up at the sky.

“What the hell happened to you?!” Eddie screams.

Anthony pulls his sleeve up to see that he had two lines on his wrist. “Damn.” 

A plane flew over us. “A plane,” Martha didn’t remember seeing that at the beginning of the game last time. Anthony, Martha, and I shared a look and the same thought that maybe Spencer was Seaplane this time.

“Come on! Follow me!” I ran in the direction of the plane. 

“Keep up!” Martha yells to Milo and Eddie.

“Come on, let’s go. Let’s go. Follow us.” Anthony ran past the two men who didn’t move to follow us. Milo and Eddie share a look before doing as they were told.

We got to a clearing where the plane was landing in front of us. The plane window slides up to reveal that Nigel was the one flying it. “Welcome to Jumanji.” He greets us.

“Why is he in the plane?” Anthony asked.

“I don’t know.” Martha sighs. The differences from the first time we played were starting to freak us out.

“Well, don’t just stand there, Hop in!” Nigel waves for us to come on. We got into the airplane. “Strap in. There’s no time to spare.” He put the plane back into the air. We put our seat belts on.

“Dr. Bravestone, famed archeologist and international explorer. I’m so glad you’ve returned. I’ve been so anxious for your arrival.” He looks back to stare at Eddie.

“He never looks where he is going, no matter if it’s a car or a plane.” I shook my head.

“You’re talking to me?” Eddie points to himself.

“Yes, he’s talking to you,” Anthony told him.

“Once again, Jumanji is in great peril and only you can help.” He stares at Eddie. His neck was going to hurt soon with the way he’s twisting it around. 

“Nigel, we’re looking for our friend. Have you seen, like, anyone…?” Martha realized she had no idea who Spencer was in the game.

“Ruby Roundhouse, Killer of men, welcome to Jumanji.” Nigel greets her in his Nigel way of calling her by her full name and title.

“Killer of men,” Eddie narrows his eyes at her.

“Yeah, I… I kill guys.” She explains her character’s specialty.

“I’m so glad you’ve returned. I’ve been so anxious for your arrival.” He repeats himself. 

“What’s with this fella?” Milo nods to Nigel.

“My dearest Mouse, surely you remember me, Nigel Billingsly at your service.” He introduces himself to the man.

“Hey Nigel, I thought that was you.” Milo nods. He did it in such a casual way, that I wonder how many times he pretended to know someone who knew him.

“He’s a… what is it called?” Anthony tried to think of what Spencer called him last time.

“He’s an NPC, a non-player character. He’s not a real person. He is a computer program that only has a select few phrases. His job is to tell us the back story and how to beat the game. He’ll drop us off at our starting point. He’ll pick us up at the end.” I explain.

“My friend Carl is just like that.” Milo points at me. I squinted at him, wondering how Carl could be like that.

“Nigel, we’re looking for someone. Has anyone else arrived here in Jumanji?” Martha tried again.

“Jumanji is in great peril. It’s all detailed in the letter I sent you, Dr. Bravestone. Perhaps you should read it aloud.” He looks back at Eddie.

“Grandpa Eddie, do you have a letter?” Martha asked.

“Do I have a letter?” He tried to remember if he ever got a letter from someone named Nigel before.

“Check your pockets,” Martha told him.

“Why would I have a letter?” Eddie leans in to ask her.

“Because Nigel wrote you a letter,” I point at the pilot.

“I didn’t get a letter for this guy.” He never met this man a day before in his long life.

“But, we are in a video game and...” Martha was going to explain to him again that we weren’t ourselves right now.

“We’re in a video game?” He interrupted her.

“We’re going to die.” Anthony sighs. 

“We did die.” Milo thought his theory was correct.

“Are we in hell?” Eddie always thought he might go to hell.

“I knew it,” Milo smiles. 

“Oh my god,” Martha put her head in her hands. 

“It’s all detailed in the letter I sent you, Dr. Bravestone. Perhaps you should read it aloud.” Nigel repeats himself.

“I don’t have a letter. How many times do I have to tell you that?” He shouted at the man. We look to see that he did have a letter in his hand this time. 

“Oh, no, Eddie, it’s in your hand.” Milo sighs at what he thought was his friend’s old forgetful brain.

“Where did this come from?” He didn’t remember holding it a second ago.

“You got to pay attention to what’s in your hand,” Milo told him.

“Perhaps you should read it aloud,” Nigel told him again.

Eddie clears his throat before reading, “Dr. Bravestone, it is my solemn hope that this letter finds you, for again...” 

Nigel’s voice took over as he read on. “...Jumanji is in grave danger. We need your help at once.” Our vision got cloudy as we saw a large dark castle. 

“What’s going on?” Eddie asked.

“It’s a cutscene, it’s how we find out the… I’ll explain after.” Martha didn’t have time to explain right now, she needs to listen. 

Nigel continues to read the letter. “You see, our worst nightmare has come to pass, for Jurgen the Brutal has returned.” A man who looks like he could be a character from Game of Thrones walkouts, he had on a fur coat and a wild beard. Two large hyenas were walking on each side of him. 

“Indeed, that most vicious Jumanji conqueror is back and he’s brought with him his savage horde.” Jurgen walks to the end of a platform and raises his hands in the air. A large crowd of warriors raises their weapons in the air. “They descended from their fortress atop Mount Zhatmire and made their way south to the Avian Province, home of the scared Falcon Jewel, worn around the neck of the village elder and it has been guarded by the people of the Avian Province for hundreds of years.” We saw a small village deep in the jungle. Villagers were surrounding an old man wearing a red glowing necklace. “So long as the jewel can see the sun, the waters will flow and the land will flourish.” A person working in a field of crops was shown. The next scene was Jurgen throwing a torch at the biggest building in the small village. His men were laying waste to the village.

“I’m sorry, why aren’t these superpower jewels more heavily guarded.” I found the common theme in Jumanji.

“Hush, Jenny.” Martha scolds me.

“She has a point.” Milo agrees to get hush by Anthony.

We watch as two men hold the elder down as Jurgen ripped the necklace off his neck. “Many brave souls died that day but Jurgen got what he came for. He stowed the Jewel in darkness hidden from the sun.” He put the jewel into a big metal box and locked it up. He gave the key to someone else to hold. They put the metal box on a flatbed that had two hyenas guarding it. “A drought befalls the land. The crops dried and died. And if the jewel is not returned soon, it may be too late.” We watch as the crops die. “Which is why we called for and your brilliant associates. I understand the enormous weight that this must carry for you, Dr. Bravestone. How this adventure is like no other….” It shows Nigel writing the letter with ink and quill. “... Since it was Jurgen the Brutal who killed your parents,” Jurgen broke down the door of a small house to slice up a man who looked like Bravestone and a woman to death.

Our vision cleared; bring us back to the plane. “Huh?” Eddie yelled.

“He killed Dr. Bravestone’s parents?” Martha asked.

“Indeed, he did, when the doctor was just a boy,” Nigel explains.

“Oh well, that’s terrible.” Milo pats Eddie’s shoulder. 

“I know it’s especially hard for you too, Connie.” He looked at me for the first time since we entered the plane. 

“Why did he kill my parents, too?” I asked.

“No, because he’s your ex-lover. He always wanted more, but you were never the type to be tied down.” Nigel explains.

“What?” I squinted at him. Did this character always have a love interest first Seaplane now Jurgen the Brutal? 

“You slept with the man that killed my parents? Does Anthony know?” Eddie points at my boyfriend. Anthony shook his head at the old man.

“I can’t stress this enough, we’re in a video game.” Martha reminds them.

“You must recover the jewel from Jurgen the Brutal and show it to the sun. He’s making his way north across the desert now.” Nigel told us.

“Jurgen the Brutal, is that Barbara’s boy?” Milo turns to Eddie.

“And remember, the goal is to recover the loot, to wrest it from the hands of the Brute. And if you wish to leave the game, you must save Jumanji and call out its name.” Nigel explains.

“At least that part is the same.” I sigh.

“Excuse me,” Eddie yelled. Martha, Anthony, and I gave him an annoyed expression while holding on to the hope that he should ask a valid question. “Who is Jumanji?” He asked, making us groan. 

“Well, if I was listening correctly that is her sister.” Milo points at Martha. 

“Here’s your map.” Nigel pulls it out of the bag by his side. Anthony grabs it and puts it in his pocket. “Find an oasis and follow the flame to the desert fruit.”

“Huh?” I and Anthony let out. I hate the riddle in this game. 

“I can’t land here, so you’re going to have to drop in,” Nigel said.

“What?” Anthony said. 

“Why are there no parachutes appearing?” I felt my shoulder to not feel any straps. 

“No, no Nigel.” Martha shook her head. 

“I’ll get as low as I can.” He pushed the lever to make the plane fly lower. 

“Hold on,” Milo said. 

“Get ready?” Nigel faces forward. 

“What do you mean get ready?” Anthony screams.

“We don’t have parachutes. Shouldn’t we have…?” Martha points to her back. Nigel pushed a button to make our seat belts come off.

“What the hell?” Anthony screams.

“No!” I shook my head. 

“The future of Jumanji is in your hands,” Nigel told us.

“Why did you take a plane if there was nowhere to land?” Martha yells.

“And go!” Nigel pushed a button, making the bottom of the plane open. One by one we dropped out of the plane, hitting the hot sand.


	12. The Birds

“Fuck!” I got up from the burning sand as fast as I could. I dust myself off. “Oh my...” I gasped when I looked around and in every direction all that could be seen was sand. I noticed that Martha, Eddie, Milo and I were dropped a few feet from each other.

“ANTHONY! ANTHONY! FRIDGE!” I screamed when I didn’t see the pudgy man.

“The hell, man?!” Anthony screams. 

I ran up a sand hill to see that he was at the bottom of it. “Babe, thank god. I thought you lost another life or something.” I ran over to hug him.

“I’m fine. I just rolled down the hill. Nigel needs to learn how to fly a plane.” He grumbled as we walked over to Martha. “Where are we? Where is the jungle? What are we doing here?” 

“We got to keep it together, okay?” Martha met us halfway to whisper to him.

“Keep it together?” Anthony whines.

“She's right, we already have two loose cannons, we don’t need another.” I agreed.

“But, this is a whole new thing. Nobody said we’d have to do a whole new thing. And by the way, what the hell happened to Bethany?” He yelled in frustration as we made our way to Milo and Eddie. 

“I think the game decided who in the house was going to play, it didn’t choose Bethany?” I told him about my theory.

“Lucky her,” He sighs.

“So, what part of New Hampshire is this exactly?” Milo asks when he saw us.

“We’re not in New Hampshire, Milo,” Eddie told him. 

“That’s right, exactly. Not New Hampshire. You’re starting to get it now?” Martha was happy that at least one of them seems to be getting it.

“Nope, I don’t have the foggiest clue what’s going on here,” Milo smiles. Martha and I shook our heads as we looked at the ground.

“That guy kept calling me Dr. Braverman which is the name of my orthopedist. What I’m thinking is, I just had another hip surgery and now I’m coming out of it.” Eddie told us, making Martha and I even more depressed.

“Hey!” We looked over to Anthony standing on top of a sand hill. “Check this out!” He points down the hill he was on. We walk over to see that it was a junkyard in the middle of the desert with a bunch of abandoned buggies and jeeps.

Milo and Eddie wander around looking at all the cars, arguing about what old model they were. Anthony, Martha, and I tried to come up with a game plan. “Okay, we have to find Spencer. In order to do that I think we have to start playing the game. I’m sure that’s what he did. We find him, we finish the game and we go home.” Martha told us.

“Then we kill him,” I add on. Anthony nodded eagerly next to me.

“I’m not too close off to that idea right now,” Martha admits. “Okay, we are headed north, which way is north?” Martha looks at Anthony.

“I have no idea.” He shrugs.

“Well, you want to check the map?” I pat the pocket I saw him put it in.

“Right, I’m the map guy now.” He sighs, taking it out.

“Fine an oasis and follow the flame to the desert fruit. Follow the flame to the desert fruit.” Martha repeats what Nigel told us. Eddie and Milo walk over to us. 

“You know there is nothing on that?” Milo told Anthony, who was staring down at what appeared to be a blank paper to him.

“He can see it, you can’t. Each place on the map is a different level, and the levels get harder as we go.” Martha explains to them. At this point, I didn’t know if there was a point in explaining since they would forget everything we said five minutes from now. 

“This one is called...Dunes. No shit.” Anthony had an unimpressed look as he put the map back in his pocket. 

“Who the hell is that?” Eddie walks to get a better look at what was coming at us.

“That’s an ostrich,” Milo told us. Now that he said it was clear to see even from afar.

“Oh, no,” Anthony sighs. 

“Yes, indeed. This is an ostrich. The ostrich is a flightless bird.” Milo told us in his low pace voice. It was soothing when we were in the real world. Now in Jumanji, it was agonizing. He had information on a maybe dangerous animal that was heading at us at an incredible speed. It would have taken me a whole day to get to where he was to us. But, he was already halfway here in a matter of minutes. “One of 60 species: You got the penguin, you got the emu and you got the kiwi. Funny thing is… I don’t remember knowing...” He went on.

“You’re a Zoologist.” Martha, Anthony, and I yelled at him.

“I was a zoologist last time. It’s an important job. Maybe, if we could get through this a little quicker.” Anthony told him seeing that the ostrich was almost here.

“Well, another thing is, they can run up to 45 miles per hour, which makes them the world’s fastest two-legged animal. Did you know that? Fascinating,” Milo informed us. The ostrich was now standing a few feet in front of us with its wings spread out. “What a magnificent creature?” He admired it.

“We should get out of here.” Martha stared at the large bird. It let out a squawk at us.

“What else do you know about them?” Anthony asked.

“Well, here’s another interesting fact, they have three stomachs. How about that?” He puts up three fingers. 

“Oh come on, beat it.” Eddie walks over to the bird, tired of waiting for Milo to finish talking. 

“Don’t get so close,” Martha told him.

“It’s just a bird, okay? Come on, get moving. Get out of here.” He tried to shoo it away.

“Is there anything else we need to know?” Anthony turns to Milo.

“Beat it, bird.” Eddie gave it a little push.

“Okay, Grandpa Eddie. Let’s just step back, the beak looks sharp enough to cut so...” I went over and grabbed his arm to pull him away. Of course, Connie wasn’t as strong as Dr. Bravestone. 

“Another interesting thing about the ostrich….” Milo slowly got out.

“I said scram, you stupid bird.” Eddie meets the ostrich’s glare.

“At least get out of reaching distance.” I pull on the back of his shirt to get no results.

“.. is when threatened...” Milo had to be going at the speed of a sloth with how long he was taking to get this sentence out. 

“Get out of here!” He yelled as I kept pulling. I was surprised that I didn’t at least rip his shirt. “... they attack.” As Milo finishes his sentence, the bird did just that. It swung its head back and brought its strong beak down on Eddie’s head. He exploded as his guts disappeared in the air. I fell on my back. The last thing I saw before I turned to dust was the ostrich talons. I scream as it ripped me into ribbons as it trampled me. 

The game chimes in my ears as I fall from the sky. I looked to the side when I heard screaming to see Eddie falling next to me. I used my torso to swing myself in the air so that I would land on my feet. It seems like that was just a given with Bravestone since Eddie was able to do it naturally. “Why does everyone keep dropping from the sky?!” Milo screams out, so quickly that the words were almost sticking together.

When I saw that the ostrich was no longer there I turned to Milo, “Oh, now you want to talk fast…. I’m sorry.” I apologize when I remember how much older than me he was.

“Nurse, I’m going to need to see Dr. Braverman right now, please.” Eddie points at Martha.

“I’m not your nurse. Okay, listen. These tattoos on our arms that are your life count. We each have three lives. Eddie, Jenny, and Fridge each have two left. If you lose all three, listen to me, it is game over.” Martha shows them the tattoos that were on her arm. Eddie and Milo look down at their arms to see that they had the same tattoo. I sigh as I look down to see that I indeed had only two lines. 

“That’s it. You’re dead.” Anthony put it simply.

“Dead like… kaputski?” Eddie asked, seeing that he just died and came back to life.

“Yes…. kaputski.” Anthony nods.

The drumming sound echoes through the desert making them look around. “What the hell is that?” Eddie asked.

“That’s not good.” Anthony looks around trying to spot the threat.

“Look.” Martha points to where the ostrich was standing. I whip around to see a cloud of dust coming our way.

“Oh, there's one more thing about ostriches,” Milo puts a finger up.

“Oh, no,” Anthony sighs.

“Say it!” Martha demands.

“They travel in herds,” Milo told us.

“Oh my god, he went to get his boys. Why?” I push back the loose bangs that were framing my face. It wasn’t like he couldn’t handle us on his own. For Jumanji’s sake, he killed two of us. 

“We gotta get out of here,” Milo shouted. 

“Dune buggies, let’s go!” Martha screamed.

“Come on, come on! Shake a leg!” Eddie screams. We ran to get in a car that looks whole. Martha and Anthony went in one direction and Milo and Eddie went in another. I figured someone had to stick with the senior citizens, so I jumped into the backseat of the Dune buggy that Eddie was already in the driving seat of.

“Why am I so slow?” Milo pants as he opens the car open.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Eddie yells for his friend to hurry up.

“I’m coming, Eddie. Go.” Milo points forward once he got in the car. 

“Do you see the key anywhere?” Eddie looks all over for the ignition.

“What?” I lean forward to see that there wasn’t anywhere to even put a key.

“Maybe under the dash,” Eddie felt under the dashboard.

“Green Button!” Martha screams to us as they drive off.

“Green button, green button, GREEN BUTTON!” I pointed to it when I saw it.

“Green button, Go.” Milo pushes the button.

“GO, GO, GO, GO!” I scream when I look back to see the Ostriches were right behind us. Eddie took off, swerving left and right because of the ostriches that were slamming their bodies into the buggy. I scream and duck as one tries to get my head through the back window.

“You are a terrible driver,” Milo screams at him.

“What are you talking about? We’re fine.” Eddie denies. He was a terrible driver in real life but for Jumanji he was perfect. 

“Nobody’s fine. You’re...” Milo didn’t get to finish his sentence because an ostrich reaches in and grabs the back of his shirt to try and pull him out the window, but Eddie grabs his ankle. “Oh no,” He screams when the ostrich shakes its head.

“Holy shit!” I lay low in my seat, so I was less grabbable. 

“Hold on, Eddie. Please don’t let go.” Milo begs. I let out a scream as we went up a hill and went airborne. “Oh, help.” He screams as random things like an anvil, toaster, and fire extinguisher flew out of his magical backpack. I gasped when I saw a loaded bazooka fly out. I sat up to look back to see that it landed upright and one of the ostriches set it off when it ran into it. 

“Get him in,” I screamed when I saw the missile flying at us. It lands a few feet behind us making sparks and sand fly everywhere. Eddie used his new strength to pull his buddy in and punch the ostrich in the face making it fly across the desert.

Milo and I look at Eddie in shock. “Beat it!” He screams it. 

“Get out of here!” Milo screams weakly at it.

I look back in relief to see that we were now a few feet away from the herd. We flew over another hill to see Martha and Anthony standing in front of a flipped over buggy. “Get in! Hurry!” Milo screams at them. They ran to get in the backseat. Martha had to sit on my lap. I wrap my arms around her waist to help keep her in place as we take off.

Because of the shortstop, the ostriches were right on our tail again. Eddie made a sharp turn making the birds in the front stumble and fall. It was like a domino effect, with all of them falling on top of each other. “Suckers!” Eddie yelled out the window.

We went over another hill to see that there was a canyon. “Eddie!” Milo screams his name hoping that he saw it.

“Ah oh,” Eddie had to slam on the breaks and make a hard left to force the buggy to stop. He was able to do it just in the nick of time. 

“Oh shit!” I screamed when I looked out the window to see that the tires were half on and half off. I let out a curse word when I saw how far down the canyon went. I look back to my right to see that the ostriches were still coming.

“Damn, they don’t give up.” Anthony sighs when he sees the same thing.

“What do we do?” Martha asked. Eddie turns the car to speed towards them.

“What the hell are you doing?” I screamed, holding on tightly to Martha.

“What are you doing?” Milo grabs onto the edges of his seat. 

“BIRDS! BIRDS! BIRDS!” Anthony screams.

Right before Eddie would have slammed into one, he turns right to head back towards the cliff. “What was the point of that?” I hide my face on Martha’s shoulder.

“What the hell, man!” Anthony cried out, now the ostriches were right on their bumper again.

“They’re flightless birds,” Eddie growls back at us like we were kids fighting on a road trip.

“This is a flightless dune buggy!” Martha screams. 

We scream as the ostrich starts to beak holes through the roof. I panicked when I heard a hit right above our heads. “Martha!” I push her down, so her head is in Anthony’s lap. An ostrich beak came in where her head was as they ripped the roof off. 

“We’re not going to make it!” Milo screams. Martha and I straighten up to see that Eddie was headed towards a rock that looks like nature’s ramp. It was right at the end of the canyon. 

“We’re going to make it.” Eddie was confident in his abilities.

“No, we’re not!” Martha and I yelled.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it.” Anthony agrees.

“We’re going to make it.” Eddie pushes the gas pedal to the floor and drives right off the cliff. We held onto the metal frame as we lifted from our seats. “We’re not going to make it,” Eddie yelled when the buggy nosedive right before we would have made it to the other side. The front bump slammed into the cliff making us fly out. 

I flew out and landed hard on top of Martha. I got a face full of boobies. I groan in pain, not finding the strength to lift myself just yet. “Can you get off?” Martha groans underneath me.

“Sorry.” I got up and helped her up. I walk over to help Anthony up. “I see the appeal now,” I whisper to him.

“Please don’t give me a boner while I’m in this body.” He shook his head to get the image of me on top of Martha out of his head.

“That was fantastic.” Eddie looked to be in bliss as he lay on the sand. With one last dreamy sigh, he stood up to look at the ostriches that were staring at us from the other side of the canyon. “Yeah, you see that, birds? You don’t mess with the kid. Right there!” He gave them the finger. They squawk one last time before turning away to admit defeat. Anthony helped Milo get up. 

“Did you see me?” Eddie points to himself. “I was incredible. I mean, I saved you, I saved you, I saved you, I saved this guy from a bird….” He points at all of us, leaving Milo for last. “... while I was driving a car. I was a machine. I was relentless. I was fearless.” 

“Yes exactly, fearless. That’s Bravestone. Okay, check this out.” Martha ran over to push down on his left pec making a gray box with green words pop up in the sky.

“Oh goodness,” Milo stares in amazement. 

“What the hell?” Eddie was freaking out that something pops out of his chest. 

“It’s your strengths and weaknesses. I mean your avatar, Dr, Bravestone’s strengths and weakness.” Martha explained. 

“Fearless, check. Speed. Climbing. Boomerang? Smoldering intensity?” He looks at us to see if we know what that was.

“It’s this stupid face you make.” Anthony kneels on one knee to gather his breath. This body wasn’t able to get up right after taking a hit like that.

“Huh?” He didn’t understand how a stupid face was a strength, then he did it. He looked off to the side as he smoldered.

“There it is.” Anthony got up and dusted his knee off.

Martha found her eyes unable to look away from him. “Ew, ew, old man. Get it together.” She shutters.

“Eddie, you okay? Are you having a heart attack? His whole left side is shutting down. Eddie, look at me!” Milo looks at his friend in concern. Eddie seems to have a hard time coming out of the smolder. He went from a handsome smolder to a stroke face with his jaw hanging at a weird angle. 

“Yeah?” He shakes his head to go back to a normal facial expression, before turning to Milo.

“There you go. Now you’re back.” Milo nods in approval.

“Weakness: Switchblade,” Eddie read the last thing on his board. 

“Switchblade? Hey, that’s new.” Anthony squinted, even though he had glasses on.

“Bravestone didn’t have any weakness last time,” Martha remembers.

“Yeah, bugged the hell out of me,” Anthony said exactly what she was thinking.

“I think I have one somewhere.” I reach into my pouch.

“No need to get it out.” Martha grabs my hand to stop me. 

“Better to be safe.” I nod in agreement.

“I wonder if...” She hit her chest to make a gray box with red writing pop up. Her strengths were karate, t’ai chi, aikido, and nunchaku. Her weakness was venom. “Nunchaku? That’s new.” She turns to us.

“Damn, that’s a good list.” Anthony stared up in admiration. He wishes he could get a list like that.

I push down on my left breast to see a gray box with a white writing pop up. Connie’s strength was throwing knives, ninja stars, stamina, and speed. Her weakness was animal hair except for hyena hair. “Except hyena hair? Well at least now, if I face off with a hyena I don’t have to worry about the hair making me explode.” I roll my eyes at the difference in my stats.

“Milo, push your left…. like the chest area.” Martha waved her hand over hers.

“I’m sorry, what?” He looks at her like she was crazy.

“Come on, man.” Anthony pats his chest. He must not have to push it hard enough since his box didn’t pop up. Eddie hit Milo hard in the chest making him stumble back a couple of feet. A gray box with purple writing appeared. His strengths were zoology, weapon valet, and linguistics. His weakness was cake, speed, and strength. I was questioning strength being his weakness because I saw all that stuff fly out of his backpack.

“Oh, I got one too. What?” Milo stared at it. “My Zoology, that’s what you were talking about earlier.” He points at us.

Anthony and I nod our heads. “Yes, exactly, your avatar is a zoologist.” Martha smiled. She hopes that after that traumatic episode they got it now.

“You know my nephew Maxwell is a veterinarian. What a fascinating...” Milo was about to tell us a story about his nephew when Martha cut him off.

“Linguistics?” Martha spotted the difference in his stats.

“I didn’t have that last time.” Anthony never got to speak a different language.

“The study of languages,” I tilt my head. That was interesting, most of the time in video games everyone speaks the same language you do, even if you’re supposed to be in a foreign country.

“Makes sense, he studies the entire language on his way to the point.” Eddie looks at his friend annoyed. He always had to talk in circles.

“Anyways, he’s 32. Or is he 35? Time does fly.” Milo sighs. 

“Okay, let’s get it over with.” Anthony’s fist pumps his left pec. His strengths were cartography, archaeology, paleontology, and geometry. His weakness was endurance, heat, sun, and sand. 

“Wow, you got three more weaknesses than last time.” I pat his shoulder in sympathy.

“You gotta be kidding me.” He shrugs my hand off of him. 

“Well, geometry is...is new.” Martha points out his new strength. 

“Yeah, who wouldn’t want to be better at geometry? And for weaknesses: endurance and what else? Let’s see the heat, sun, and sand.” He hit his chest again to get the list to go away before he got anymore upset. Everyone took a second to look around to see his three weaknesses were surrounding us. “Shouldn’t be a problem, it’s not like we’re in the middle of a goddamn desert or anything. What’s the point of this guy? Who even needs this guy?” He gestures to his body.

“He can read the map.” Martha reminds him.

“Yeah, without him we would be wandering around aimless,” I add on. 

“Easy for you too to say: Martha, you got nunchaku. Jenny, you got ninja stars.” He pointed at her, then me. “I’ve been training four hours a day for six months. Now, look at me! Man, it is hot out here.” He took a moment to gather himself because he was out of breath. It made him even more aggregated. “How is this guy a character in an adventure game? Okay, Okay, okay.” He put his hands up like he was calming us down and not himself. “I just got to get his guy in shape and build up some endurance. I know how to do that. Burpees. Five burpees, right now. Gets it going!” He drops down and does the saddest, slowest burpee I ever saw him do. Normally, he does them so fast it was impressive and kind of hot, especially if he did them shirtless.

“That’s one.” Milo counted.

“One,” He jumped up out of breath. He drops back down and has a hard time pushing himself back up. 

“Oh, no,” Milo gasps. 

“Oh yeah, come on.” He rolls over on his back.

“I got this.” I sat down next to him. “Look, babe, unless you want to stay here for six months and get this body in shape we got to keep moving. Besides, the faster we beat this game the faster you get back to your sexy body.” I wink at him.

“And, I’ll be black again.” He nods.

“That too, yes,” I nod along.

“North is that way.” He points us in the right direction.

“Okay, let’s go.” I got up and helped him off the ground.

We walk in that direction for miles. One of the good things about being a video game character is that you didn’t need to sleep, eat, or drink. 

We finally stop on the top of a hill that overlooks a small town in the middle of the desert. Anthony took out his map and read, “The oasis.” 

“I guess that's the next level.” Martha looks out at it.

“Huh?” Eddie made that noise of confusion that he always did. 

She let out a long sigh before saying, “The next level of the game.” 

“We’re in a game?” Eddie asked.

Anthony lowered his map to look at the man in disbelief. “Yes, Grandpa Eddie, we are in a game.” 

“You can’t be serious,” Martha whispers.

“How do they not have caretakers with them 24/7?” I whisper back. This was getting ridiculous.

“I don’t know.” She nods in agreement. 

“Did you know about this?” Eddie turns to Milo.

“I thought you were done talking.” Milo looks off into the distance, confusing Martha, Anthony and I.


	13. Oasis, For Who?

The first thing I saw when I entered the Oasis was a wanted poster of Connie. “What the hell? Why am I wanted?” I tear it off the wall.  
“You are an assassin.” Martha reminds me.   
“An assassin that helped save Jumanji, you’re a killer of men, where is your wanted posture.” I grabbed a coat that was hanging off a cart and put it on. It was much too big for me, it swallows my whole frame. I put the hood up, making my face non-visual.  
“At least you’re wanted alive.” Anthony looks at the poster.  
“You’re worth a year’s rent.” Milo gasps.   
“Maybe we should turn her in,” Eddie said. I turn around to take the paper from their hands and rip it up. I throw it in the air. “No wonder you’re wanted, making all this damn litter.” Eddie looks at the pieces of paper on the ground.  
“Come on, guys let’s keep going.” Martha walks more into the center of town.   
“So, what exactly are we looking for again?” Milo asked.  
“We’re looking for my grandson, genius.” Eddie snapped, making Martha, Anthony and I feel a little better that one of them was on the task at hand.  
“Okay, follow the flame to the desert fruit.” Martha looks around for a sign of the mission. “Look, they’re here” She nods to the two laughing hyenas on a flatbed.   
“Hyenas, known for their bone-crushing teeth,” Milo gave us a fact about that animal.  
“Do you think that’s why I have wanted posters up? What a petty ex?” I kept the grip on my coat tight to make sure it didn’t fall off.  
“You did leave him brokenhearted.” Milo reminds.  
“Yeah, and he’s a psycho, so that would make him snap.” Eddie nods along.  
“I need you two to remember who is on your team. Me, I’m on your team. You are supposed to be on my side.” I point to my chest.  
“Smoke Stack, where there smoke….” Anthony read the neon light sign to a local pub.  
“There’s fire.” Martha finished. “Come on.” She nods her head in the direction of the place. We walk in to see people having a good time. They were drinking, gambling, and eating. A romantic slow song came on the jukebox. A beautiful Hispanic woman in a red dress with long black gloves and complicated hairdo with a rose in it walked over to Eddie. With her diamond earrings and matching bracelets, she looked too classy to be in a place like this. It was a hole in the wall at best. “I thought you’d never come back.” She told him. He looks back to see if she was talking to someone else. “I need to talk to you.” She leans in to whisper to him.  
“Absolutely,” Eddie would do whatever this woman wanted him to.   
“Not here, not now. Not around them.” She whispers to him, before smacking him across the face.   
“Oh,” I held the side of my face like she slapped me.   
“Leave me alone.” She gave him one last longing look before running out.   
“Fiery.” He turns to tell us while pointing his thumb in the direction she went.   
“Not a real person.” Anthony reminds him.  
“What did she say?” Martha whispers to him. We were wondering if she said anything we couldn’t hear.  
“She said she thought I was never going to come back here, she wants to get together later, and we all know what that means.” He gave them a wink.  
“Hey oh,” Milo let out.   
“It means she’s got a clue for you.” Anthony sighs.  
“Oh, that’s a coincidence because I got a clue for her.” Eddie put double meaning behind his words.  
“You got a clue for her.” Milo was hyping up his friend.  
“Wait a minute. She’s your ex-girlfriend. She’s the flame. Follow the flame.” Martha remembers the second half of the riddle.  
“What?” Milo asked.   
Martha, Anthony, and I went out to follow her with the other two trailing after us. We follow the flame around the corner to a seedy bar. There were men playing darts with axes and hyenas circling a metal box.  
“The jewel, it’s here,” Martha whispered.  
Jurgen came walking out making me pull my hood close, so only my eyes were not covered. He throws a piece of meat to the hyenas. They played tug of war with it making it tear in two.   
“Wait a second… is that the guy that killed my parents?” Eddie whispers to us.  
“No… well yeah, kind of,” She shrugs, hoping he wouldn’t do anything rash.  
“We lost a good man today, the very best of us.” He said to a crowd of sad faces. “For Dagfinn… he wasn’t just my hyena master. He was my friend. I loved him like a brother. And now he’s gone. And his… well, someone’s beloved hyenas are left without a master.” He throws them a couple more pieces of meat. “Long live Dagfinn.” He put his hands up.  
“Long Live Dagfinn,” The crowd raises their hands too.  
“Why did he have to die?” He took a small pause before answering his own question. “He died because… he made a mistake. He tried to steal something quite precious from me. He left me no choice. And now I feed him to the beloved hyenas.” He throws another piece of meat to the hyenas.  
“That’s messed up.” Anthony shook his head.  
“I loved Dagfinn. There’s none among you I love as much.” He points to the crowd. A hyena put its nose in the air and sniffed. It pulled on its chain and started to whine like a dog wanting to play. It made the dangerous man stop his speech to look over at it. “She only reacts that way to one person.” He scans the crowd. “Come on out Con...” Before he could finish saying my character’s name the lights went out.   
The crowd let out yells of protest before the lights were turned back on. “The key! It’s gone.” A warrior yelled.   
“Thief!” Jurgen points at a small Asian woman trying to sneak out. She tried to run out when Eddie caught her.  
“I got her. I got the thief.” Eddie looks over at Jurgen.  
“Wait… are you guys...” She looked at us in surprise as two men came to drag her back to Jurgen.  
“Trying to steal the key to my chest?” The mad man walks over to the small woman.  
“Nope,” She shook her head.  
“Shake her down.” He nods to his men. They picked up and shook her around. A large metal key fell out of her pocket.  
“I’m sorry, I did it. It was my fault. I...I just… I don’t… I don’t know what I was… oy vey.” She stutters.   
“Spencer?” I whisper.  
“It’s like… it’s like I’m hyperventilating. Does anyone have, like, a eucalyptus inhaler? Or a brown paper bag?” She, maybe he, went on to ask.  
“Definitely Spencer,” Martha nods.   
“Is it really hot in here?” He looks up at the guard to ask.  
“You mean?” Anthony points at him. Martha and I nod our heads as we pointed.  
“That’s him, right there.” She told Eddie and Milo.  
“What? That ain’t Spencer. I know my grandson. My grandson’s a guy.” Eddie shook his head.  
“That doesn’t matter in this game. You’re not tall, dark, and handsome in real life.” I hissed at him. Eddie gasps and puts a hand over his heart.  
“You told me that Dr. Bravestone wasn’t that good looking,” Anthony whispers to me.  
“Now is not the time,” I wave him off.  
“Did he change his hair?” Milo stared at Spencer.  
“Cut off her head.” A female warrior shouted.  
“Yeah!” Someone else in the crowd cheered.  
“Wait! Wait! Wait! I just think maybe don’t cut off my head?” Spencer tries to plead for his life. Jurgen grabs an ax off the table and throws it at his head, splitting it open.   
“SPENCER!” Martha screamed.  
“Oh my...” Milo gasped.  
“Did he just...” Anthony’s jaw dropped. The game chimed, making us look up.   
“That’s my life alert. I got to take my pill.” Milo looks around for his pill bottle. When we heard someone landed outside, I grabbed Milo’s arm to drag him out.   
Martha was in the lead. “Spencer!” She walks over to him. “Oh my god, you’re alive.” We follow behind her.   
“What are you guys doing here?” He asked us.  
“What are we doing here? We came to get you, fool.” Anthony screams at him.  
“Bethany?” Spencer tilts his head at the aggression his normally cheerful friend had.  
“No, I’m Fridge.” He slaps his chest.  
“What? So...” He points to Mouse.  
“Milo Walker, darling,” He tips his hat to what he thought was a young lady.  
“Milo?” She gasps, wondering why we would bring him along.  
“Spencer? Is that you, kiddo.” Eddie squints as he walks in front of his grandson.  
“Grandpa?” Spencer looks at us for answers.  
“The game is busted as you know, and it took whoever it wanted in the house. I’m still Jenny by the way.” I opened up the front part of my hood so he could see my face.  
“Guys, I found Spencer. Here’s Spencer. What are you stealing for?” He told us before scolding his grandson.  
He looks over at Martha. “I’m still me.” She told him.   
“Oh, hey,” He gave her an awkward nod.  
“Hey.” She nods back to him.  
“Hey.” He nods some more.  
The hyena’s giggles put Spencer and me on edge. “Come on.” He waves to us. We follow him to hide in an alley as the bad guys take off in their armored dung buggies. “Damn it, I was so close. I had the key in my hand. Why’d you stop me?” He looks up at his grandpa. Something he didn’t have to do since the fourth grade.   
“Huh? Someone yelled, thief, so I grabbed you. What do you want?” He shrugs like it was no big deal that he got him killed.  
“You guys shouldn’t have come here. I had it under control.” Spencer looks over at Martha, Anthony, and me.  
“Did you? It looked like you just got murdered?” Martha made an ax-throwing motion.  
“Cause he grabbed me.” He points at his grandpa.  
“Oh please, they already spotted you. There is no way you would have been able to outrun a group of angry Viking, medieval warriors, whatever they are.” I wave my hand to say that the name of the group didn’t matter. My point was that he would have died anyway. “They would have used the hyenas to chase you down.”  
“I mean, what the hell, Spencer? Why are you even here?” Anthony asks the question he has been wondering since he saw the game console in the basement.  
“Why did you have the game?” Martha asked.  
“We destroyed it so that this would never happen!” Anthony reminds him.  
“It was your idea.” I point at him.  
“I went back and got it, okay?” He paces in front of us.  
“No, not okay. We need more than that.” I shook my head. I got ripped to shreds by an ostrich because of him.  
“I don’t know why I did it, but I did. And then last night...I’ve been in kind of a weird place, and something came over me, okay?” He tried to explain in the vaguest way possible.  
“And now we’re all stuck here again!” Anthony points up at the sky, the way that we enter this world.  
“I thought that I would be him. Bravestone!” He points at his grandpa. Eddie and Milo were sitting on the back of a delivery van. “I wanted to feel like that again. Like… I could do anything.” He confessed the reason he went back to Jumanji. We shot him a look of sympathy understanding why now. We were still angry, but we understood. “But instead, I’m Ming Fleetfoot.” He hit his left chest to make a gray box with purple letters appear. Ming’s strengths were cat burglar, pickpocket, and safe-cracker. Her weakness is pollen. Martha read her strengths and weaknesses out loud.  
“Another better character,” Anthony throws a hand up in defeat.   
“She’s an Asian Cat Woman, that's pretty cool,” I didn’t get why he was so bummed out. He was able to get this far with her skills.   
“No, she’s small and crafty and has allergies. I mean, she’s basically me.” He points to himself.  
“I swear, man, if we survive, I am going to kill you.” Anthony looks up at the sky like he was making a promise to god.  
“I don’t mean to depress you anymore then you already are. But, other than pollen and being small how is she like you. She got some major stealth skills. You can’t even sneak out of your house without your mom catching you.” I brought up the time, we were supposed to sneak out to watch the midnight premiere of the new Star Wars movie and he got caught.   
“You’re not helping.” He glared at me.  
“I just can’t believe you came back here on purpose.” Martha looked at him in disbelief.   
“I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry.” He apologizes. We nod, knowing that we needed to accept it so that we could work as a team.  
“Wait!” The lady in red came running over to us.  
“Oh, there she is.” Eddie got up to meet his lady love.  
“Who?” Spencer asked.  
“My ex,” Eddie calls over his shoulder as he walks over to her.  
“Bravestone’s ex.” I clarified. He nods as if saying that made more sense.  
“If my husband knew I was talking to you, you’d be dead by morning.” She grabs his hands.  
“Ah, don’t tell him?” Eddie shrugs.  
“Listen to me, Jurgen and his army are returning to his fortress. There, they will meet the Brothers Kababik. He will trade the Falcon Jewel, and an alliance will be formed. You must get the jewel before that happens. You’re our only hope, so you must hurry.” She pulled him into a heated kiss.  
“Oh my,” Milo gasps.   
“Now you must go.” She pulls away to tell him.  
“I must go.” Eddie nods like a love slave.   
“Wait, they’re going to meet the brothers who?” Anthony asked.  
“The Brothers Kababik,” She told Eddie.  
“The Brothers Kababik,” He repeats to us.  
“Kababik?” Anthony repeated.  
“Ssshh….you must get the jewel before that happens.” She put a finger up to Eddie’s lips. “You are our only hope, so you must hurry.” She pulled him into another heated kiss. Milo let out a low chuckle.  
“I think you should explain it to us one more time,” Eddie said after she pulled away.  
“Wait a second,” Martha said, making Eddie give her a look of annoyance. “What about the desert fruit? Aren’t you going to lead us to that?” She asked the flame.  
“Now I must go before Switchblade realizes I’m gone.” The flame ran her fingers along his face.  
“What?” Anthony looks over at Martha and me.   
“Switchblade?” I gasp. Eddie only had two more lives. Something tells me that the old man is going to need them.  
“That’s his weakness.” Martha nods, knowing what our concern was.  
“I love you, Dr. Bravestone and I always will. That is my curse.” She said before running off.  
“I love you too,” Eddie yelled after her.  
“Well, she seems like a nice girl.” Milo nods in approval.  
“With a husband that will have you died by morning,” I mockingly nod like I was agreeing with him.  
A camel let out noises making us look to the side to see men riding on the animals. “We need camels,” Spencer said. “Okay, if we’re going to catch up with Jurgen, we need camels. And we need to find the desert fruit whatever that is.” He told us.  
“Follow the flame. I mean, I guess we have to follow her.” Martha sighs.  
“You guys follow her. We’ll go steal some camels.” Spencer points at Martha, Anthony, and I to follow her, then at himself, Eddie and Milo to get the camels.  
“Alright,” I nod. We went our separate ways. We followed her into a building that had a room with a large tree in the middle. When we walked into it, bowls that were hanging in the air lighted on fire. Water that had green electric lights moving around in it surrounded the tree.   
“Jumanji Berry Tree,” Martha read a plaque that was on the floor.   
“Jumanji Berry, that’s a desert fruit?” He looks over at us.  
“I guess, kind of ironic that it’s surrounded by water.” I looked at the water that was sure to kill us.  
“In the moment of need, remember the seed. A little bit of Jumanji wisdom there.” He raises his eyebrows at us after he reads the rest of the plaque.  
We looked out to see the fruit hanging from the trees. “There it is.” She points at it. “So, the fruit is in the tree. But you can’t get to it without going through the water or whatever that is.” Martha paces between the two walls.   
Anthony and I were leaning against the pillars by the edge. “Get boiled or eaten by piranhas or something.” He looks down into the water. It looks like something that was glowing green was swimming in there.  
I looked up at the flames that had metal rods between them. “Follow the flame.” I point at the fire bowls.  
“I think that's how we get there.” Anthony nods in agreement. “But, I don’t know how I’m supposed to make that jump. I mean, it’s doable but I don’t have my usual explosiveness.” He started to stretch.  
“Should I do it or you?” I whisper to Martha.  
“I’ll do it. I still have three lives.” She went over to the far corner to get a running start. She jumps and grabs onto the edge of the fire bowl and uses it to swing to the rod. She did that over and over again until she got to the tree. Anthony and I cheered her on.   
“Yes!” We yelled when she grabbed the fruit. After Martha grabs it she loses her grip and falls into the water. “Martha!” We ran to the edge of the water. We kept yelling her name as we looked around for her.   
“The game didn’t chime. How long is this death?” I looked at the water, but I couldn’t see anything but green lights.  
Martha’s hand with the fruit came up over the water. “Martha!” Anthony went over to the edge. I follow him.   
“Oh, it’s really heavy.” She slowly swam over.  
Anthony puts a foot into the water and reaches out his hand to her. “You okay? Give me your hand.” She grabs it and he pulls her out. “There you go.” When they were both out of the water, green electricity ran through their joined hand. A green light explodes between them throwing them back. Since I was behind Martha, I flew back too.   
Martha landed on top of me, I groaned when the back of her head hit my nose. “Okay, Martha you got back at me. Now get up.” I groan from underneath her. She rolls over and buries her head between my breasts and shakes her head side to side. “Did you just motorboat me?” I gasp.  
“Not as big as I’m used to, but it's still nice.” She snuggles into me.  
“I’m happy that you’re experimenting in college, but seriously get off me.” I pushed her off and stood up.  
“That’s not Martha. I’m Martha.” Professor Shelby stood up and pointed to her chest.   
I look down with a glare at Ruby/Anthony. “What I couldn’t help myself?” He got off the floor.  
“I can’t believe we switch bodies.” Martha crossed her arms over her chest.  
“I know.” Anthony looked down at the wet clothes that were clinging to his sexy female body.   
“Will you look at me? I mean, what am I supposed to do with this?” Martha points down to her old pudgy man’s body.  
“You read the map,” Anthony smirks.  
“I don’t want to read the map. I’m supposed to be her.” She points at Ruby. Anthony moves his legs and arms around, feeling how flexible this new body was. “Instead, there’s actual hair growing out of my face.” She rubs her beard. “Sorry, all bodies are beautiful, even this one.” She crosses her arms over her chest.  
“Wait a second.” He jumped down and did a burpee. When he jumped up, he was able to touch the ceiling. “Whoa, this is amazing.” He screams. Now, he understood why Spencer likes being Bravestone so much.  
“Careful.” Martha and I warn him.  
“Fridge,” She said as he ran up the wall and did a backflip off it.   
“Yo, this thing is insane!” He yells. He was more athletically gifted now than he was in real life.  
“Be careful. That body is not a toy.” She glares at how he was mistreating Ruby.  
“No, it’s a machine and on top of that boobs.” He gestures to his chest.   
“Ew, don’t be disgusting.” I wrinkled my nose at him.  
“Touch my boobs and I will murder you.” Martha threatens him.  
“Too late, it was literally the first thing I did.” He waves his hand in the air. That explains why he was wiggling around when he was on top of me.  
“Ew,” Martha and I said at the same time.  
He jumped in the air and did a kick. He did that over and over again. “Hey, hey don’t do that. Let’s take this Jumanji berry and go meet them.” Martha was done with him wasting time.  
“Relax, girl. I’m trying that flying acrobat thing you did.” She put her hands up.  
“Don’t. We have the berry. It’s unnecessary.” Martha tried to stop him.  
“Check this out. Omaha, Omaha! Hut, hut, hike!” He got down like he was behind the center who was about to snap him the ball.  
“How is this anything like football?” I shook my head.  
“Wait!” Martha pleads with him to stop, but he was already running. He jumped to the first fire bowl and made it to the rod. “Fridge, be careful! I am telling you, that body’s a weapon. You don’t even know what it’s capable of.”   
“This is amazing!” He stood upon the rod.  
“That body's a loaded gun!” She screamed.  
“Yeah, and this gun’s about to go off,” He jumps to the tree. The branch he lands on snaps and he hits the wall before falling into the water.   
“Help him out, this will be your chance to switch bodies again.” I push Martha over to the edge.  
“Fridge, come here.” She puts her foot in the water and reaches her hand out to him.  
“Goddamn it.” He curses as he swims to the edge.  
“Here, I got you. I got you.” Martha pulls him up. This time I moved back as green electricity went through their hands and sent them flying back. They laid there in pain, staring at the ceiling.  
“Everyone in the right body,” I stood over them to ask.  
“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” Anthony cried out dramatically.  
“Oh my god, that was awful.” Martha looks down at her gloved hands in happiness.  
“I hate being the map guy!” He got up.   
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I smile.  
“Let’s get out of here.” Martha got up and picked up the berry.


	14. Stop Monkeying Around

Martha, Anthony, and I were sitting around a fire we made at the meeting spot that Spencer told us to go to. “They’re taking a while aren’t they?” Martha stares into the fire.

“I’m starting to think that leaving him with Milo and Eddie was a bad idea.” I nod. I took off the coat not knowing why I still had it on. It was hot and itchy.

“Stop worrying ladies. They’ll be fine.” He told us. When we heard hooves and camel noises, we stood up. “Hey! Hey!” He waves his arms around when he sees it was them.

“We should get going,” Spencer jumps off the camel.

“What happened?” Martha asked.

“My grandpa beat up 45 strangers for no reason, and now that woman’s husband is trying to kill him.” He glares at Eddie. He shrugs innocently. “Is that the desert fruit?” He looks at the fruit on the ground that looks like a large plum.

“Yeah, it’s a Jumanji Berry, and it weighs like 100 pounds.” Martha had a hard time picking it up.

“My grandpa will carry it.” He nods to the strongest player. She handed it to Eddie, who put it in the pocket of his cargo pants. A group of angry villagers ran towards us. “We should get out of here. Come on, Grandpa.” He got back on his camel.

“Let’s go.” Martha went over to her camel. 

Everyone but Eddie followed her lead. “I could take them.” He looks at the crowd.

“What?” We shouted at him.

“What are you talking about? We escaped.” Spencer shook his head. Eddie fighting unnecessarily is why they were in this situation in the first place.

“I said, I could take them,” He repeats himself.

“Oh, Eddie,” Milo sighs at his friend’s ego.

“No, Grandpa Eddie, that’s switchblade!” Anthony emphasized the guy’s nickname.

“Yeah in this game, your weaknesses are death sentences. When animal fur gets on me, I don’t get a rash, I explode.” I explain to him. 

“I’m telling you, there’s a time when you run then there’s a time in life, like right now, where you stay….” His sentence fell short as a missile hit us making us all die. The game chimed as we fell out of the sky. Martha, Eddie, Spencer, and I land on our feet. Anthony and Milo land on their backs. 

“This is the second time I died because of you,” I scream at Eddie.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I will listen from now on.” He put his hands up in defeat.

“You better!” I point a finger in his face. I walk over to jump on a camel. 

“Your girlfriend is kind of a psycho.” He whispered loudly to Anthony.

* * *

“We should see Mount Zhatmire pretty soon.” Anthony was in the front of the group with the map in his hands. I was right next to him with my camel. 

“When we get back home, I’m going to soak in a nice hot bath with the works, a bath bomb, and salts. I’ll have candles lit with soft jazz playing and bonbon to snack on.” I closed my eyes as I went off into daydream land. 

“I’ll be watching you take that bath.” Anthony winks at me when I open my eyes to look over at him.

“My dad would kill you.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“He knows we share an apartment, right? We walk around naked.” He sighs. 

“He’s my dad. He likes to pretend that I’m a virgin. I’m sure you’ll be the same when we have a daughter.” I gave him a sly smile. 

“Oh no, we will only have sons. I’m not dealing with a mini-you.” He shook his head like he had a choice.

“Well, how about the both of yous go screw yourselves?” Eddie screams at Milo making us turn our camels around.

“What did you just say?” Milo points a finger at him.

“Guys!” Anthony yelled.

“You and me, we’re going to settle this right here, right now!” Milo moves to climb down from his camel that was standing up. “I’ll show you.” He mutters.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Milo was dangling from the side of his camel. He didn’t realize how far the drop was.

“Milo, what are you doing?” Eddie looks over to see his friend hanging on.

“Hold on. Wait, wait. Here we go.” Milo jumped down. “Come on.” He yelled at Eddie as he walked out of swinging distances of his camel.

Eddie got off his camel to meet his challenge. “You want a piece of me, huh? That’s what you want?” 

“You do not want a piece of him, Milo, I’m telling,” Anthony remembers his fight with Spencer while he was Bravestone. 

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, young man, because I do want a piece. I want a big piece.” He told Anthony while keeping glare on Eddie. All of us on our camels shook our heads. “See, Eddie, what you don’t know is that for the last 15 years, I’ve been studying tai-chi. And right now I am harnessing my chi. And when I’m done, I’m going to whip your ass.” Milo did some weird stretch that I’ve only seen in bad kung fu movies. 

“Milo, I am telling you, this is not a good idea,” Anthony warns him. Milo did a karate chop to Eddie’s chest and slaps his forehead with his palm. Eddie groans and grabs his forehead before backhanding Milo, making him fly and slam into a pile of boulders, a large boulder on top of the pile falls off and crashes Milo.

“Dude! You got to stop killing everybody.” Anthony yells.

The game chimed, making Milo fall through the sky and land on his back. “All right, then. I guess that’s settled.” He got up. They got back on their camels and we continued our journey. 

The camels lead us out of the desert, into the mountains where there was a forest. 

“The camels just stopped,” Anthony thought maybe his camel was tired but he noticed that everyone else’s stop too.

The camel that Milo was riding let out made a few noises. “This is as far as they go. To get to Jurgen’s fortress, they said that we can head down this path here and make a right. Then we’re in his territory. And they don’t want to go there because they don’t want to die.” He translates. I nod my head, it seems like camels could say a lot in a few noises.

“We don’t want to die either.” Eddie smolders. Once again he made a funny face when he was finished like he didn’t know how to relax his face muscles after they were tense. Spence made a face, wondering if that was what he looked like last time. 

“The worst Bravestone of all time,” Anthony mutters under his breath.

We said goodbye and thank you to the camels before going in the direction that they told us to. We found a cliff that had hundreds of hanging wooden bridges, all in poor condition. “So we have to get across… this.” Martha wasn’t even sure what she was looking at. None of the bridges went straight and most of them appear to be hanging from the sky.

“Okay, we can do this. We can do this. We just have to take our time and make careful decisions.” Spencer scratches his head.

“What are you talking about? It’s obvious. We start on that bridge right there and then jump to that one that heads right at 30 degrees, and then those two that look like two sides of a trapezoid...Geometry.” Anthony gasps when he realizes why he knew all that information. Spence stared at him, not knowing that his friend was smart. “That’s what it’s for. Maybe this character’s not totally worthless.” He looks down at Shelby’s body with new appreciation.

“I’ll go first.” Eddie volunteers. 

“Really?” Spencer asked.

“I agree with Spence, I think Anthony should go first since he knows where to go next,” I said. As always Eddie didn’t listen to anyone and walk on to the bridge that Anthony points to.

He got to the middle of the bridge and turned around to yell at us. “You see? It’s no big deal.” The drums start to play. We looked around for the danger that was about to rush out at us. 

“What’s going on?” Anthony looks up at the sky.

“No, No, No.” I turn around to keep an eye on the forest. I expected a bear to come running out. 

“Grandpa!” Spencer yelled. I turned around to see that the bridges were moving. 

“Jumanji stealing things from Harry Potter now,” I glare at the moving bridges.

“Oh, crap.” Eddie groans. “What the hell?” He yells when a bridge hit the one he was on.

“It’s okay. We can do this.” Spence told us.

“How do you figure that?” I ask. The bridges weren’t even by us to jump on anymore.

“It’s just about finding the right timing.” Spencer went over to the edge. 

“Come on. Come on. Come on.” Eddie yells when the bridge comes back over to us.

“Follow me.” Spence jumps onto the moving bridge. Ruby and I were right on his tail. Anthony came after. We look back at Milo who was standing there staring at the bridge that is slowly moving away from the cliff again.

“Come on, Milo,” Eddie yelled. Milo let out a sigh before running and jumping on the bridge. His foot went through the rotting wood that made up this bridge. “Oh lord,” He held onto the ropes.

“Here,” Anthony pulls him up. 

“Hey, you guys, is that rock moving?” Martha points to the large mountain that was in the middle of the foggy landscape. It did look like it was moving around the edges.

“Oh, no,” Milo gasps. 

“What?” Martha asked.

“Well, now this is a problem.” Milo stares at the rock.

“Come on, what is it?” Anthony urges him to hurry up and get it out. “Spit it out.” He yelled when the mountain started to move more. 

“What is it?” Eddie yelled.

“Tell us, Milo!” Spence screams. Whatever it was looking like there were plenty of them.

We let out a scream when a large monkey jumped onto the bridge across from us. “Why does it have to be fucking monkeys?” I only had one life left and I couldn’t get any of these demons fur on me.

It let out a mighty roar showcasing all its fangs. “Those are mandrills. We should go. Go! Go!” Milo pushed Anthony to move forward. 

“That one! Obtuse Angle!” Anthony pointed to the next bridge. None of us hesitated this time to jump on it as quickly as we could. A large primate hunting you down would motivate anyone to run.

“Note the distinctive and colorful pigment around their face and buttocks. Mandrills are the heaviest of all monkeys. Even heavier than baboons, with which they are often confused.” Milo gave us fun facts about the animals chasing us down.

“And now head for the rhombus,” Anthony yells. Those of us in front of him had to look back to see which one he was pointing at because none of us knew what he was talking about. It was the fastest look back I ever did to jump to the next bridge. 

“Come on, hurry up.” Eddie pushes everyone to go in front of him. None of us questioned him and instead just ran ahead. 

“No, Martha,” Anthony yelled when she jumped to the next closest bridge. I would have followed her if he didn’t grab the back of my leather holster. “Not that one! You’re on the wrong bridge!” 

“What?” She screams as it swings away from us.

“The perpendicular one!” He jumps on the bridge that was right below us. I jump down after him, followed by Eddie and Milo. Spencer was paying too much attention to Martha and missed his chance to jump. 

“Martha! A monkey is behind you!” I scream. It was like a scene out of the horror movie, where the pretty girl didn’t realize the serial killer was behind her. It roars before jumping on the bridge and picking her up to throw her off.

“No!” Spencer watches in horror as she falls to her death.

“Fuck!” I pull out a throwing knife. 

“Spencer, behind you,” Anthony warns him. Spencer had to run to the next bridge as a bunch of the monkeys jumped onto the bridge he was on.

“Go, Spencer, Go,” I screamed. He only had one life left, if he died now, he would be dead forever.

“Come on, I got you.” Eddie went to the edge of our bridge and held his hand out. Spencer jumps way too short to make the reach. “Spencer!” Eddie screams. Spencer lands on a bridge that had a monkey on either end. Luckily the bridge was at an angle, so he slid right off knocking one of the monkeys off too. He was able to fall on another bridge, but the monkey grabs on to his foot to try and save itself from falling to its death. 

The game chimed and Martha fell from the sky. The bridge she lands on broke, she held on it as it swung down. She was able to swing it towards another bridge and jump on it.

The monkey was able to climb up Spencer’s leg and crawl on top of him. “Get off! Get off!” He tried to kick it off, but the monkey was a lot stronger than him. Eddie ran and jumped to the bridge that Spencer was on. He kicks the monkey off of him. 

“Come on.” He helps his grandson up. He looks around to see that every bridge surrounding them has monkeys on them. “Alright, bring it on,” Eddie yells to them. The monkey charges them jumping onto the bridge. “Come here.” He shakes the bridge, knocking the monkeys off. In true Eddie fashion he went too far, he ended up shaking Spencer’s off to. He lands on the bridge that Martha was on. 

“Give me your hand.” Martha reaches her hand out.

“What?” Spencer yells.

“Trust me.” She grabs his hand and runs to jump off the bridge. She grabs onto the rope of the fallen bridge and swings. She throws Spencer safely to the other side. She swings back to kick a monkey before swinging forward and jumping off herself. 

As happy as I was that they were safe, the rest of us were still running from the monkeys. Eddie was able to join us on our bridge. “Last one. Aim for the center of the parabola!” Anthony leads us to the next bridge. He jumps firsts, but one of his ankles buckles. I jump down next and help him across the bridge. Eddie jumps down and Milo after. But, Milo’s feet went through the wood. He was hanging on to the other wooden panels. When Eddie saw that they wouldn’t be able to outrun the monkey, he stepped over Milo and cut the bridge. 

“Oh, crap.” I curse as Anthony and I had to throw ourselves off the bridge and to the other side to avoid falling off the mountain. 

“Eddie! Milo!” Anthony tried to get up but his ankle wouldn’t let him. Martha and Spencer ran to the edge to see if they could help. 

“Shit, baby, are you okay?” I kneel next to him.

“I just hate this out of shape body.” He hissed in pain. I help him up. Milo flew up and landed on the edge of the cliff. 

“Did Eddie throw him?” I look down at Milo. He was face down in the gravel. 

“Yes.” Spencer nods.

Eddie crawls his way up. A swinging bridge came by with a bunch of monkeys on it. They were roaring in anger. “Seriously?” Anthony screams in frustration. Eddie and Milo quickly got to their feet. “Run!” He screams as the monkeys jump off the bridge. We ran to only be faced with another group of monkeys. 

“Shit, no one get your fur on me.” I got a throwing star in each hand as we got surrounded by monkeys.

Seaplane shows up on the scene, riding in on a black horse that scares most of the monkeys away. It kicked a few of the brave ones, which were enough to make the rest retreat. “Hey, guys.” He smiles down at us. 

“Who the hell is this?” Eddie asked.

“Alex, what are you doing here?” I smile as he climbs off the horse.

“Bethany thought you might need some help.” He told us.

“Where is Bethany?” Martha asked.

“She’s right here.” He points at the horse.

“You mean…?” She points at the horse also.

The horse let a few neighs. “Oh my god, right? Like, I’m a total horse. I can’t believe that we found you guys. Hi!” Milo translated for us.

“Yep, that’s Bethany.” Anthony laughs. “What’s up, girl!” He nods.

“Oh, Beth,” I ran over to hug her.

“Hey.” Martha waves. 

“Oh, we brought you some clothes. You must be freezing.” He leads us to the cave that they have been staying in. They were waiting for us here. 

“I’ll go first.” I grabbed the [backpack](https://urstyle.fashion/styles/2470952) and ran into the cave. Anthony followed me in. I took off my crop top to put on a black long sleeve shirt. I took off my hostler and put it down on a boulder. I ripped off my hiking boots and peel off my shorts to put on a pair of black high waist cargo pants and black knee-high combat boots that had pouches and pockets on the side of them. “I wonder if I could take you with me,” I whisper down to my boots.

“Hurry up, Jenny. Others are half-naked in the cold too.” Martha’s voice echoed through the cave. I put my holster back on before putting on a green camo jacket with a fur hood. 

“So rude that she assumes it’s me taking forever.” I turned to see Anthony was already dressed in his winter outfit. “The hat is cute.” I point at his furry trapper hat.

“Shut up, woman.” He emphasized the word woman. I laughed as we walked out and Martha ran in. 

We walk over to sit down on some logs under a tree where Bethany, Alex, and Spencer were. Anthony and I sat down on a log. Spencer took a look at his ankle. “So, this horse is a character in the game?” Spencer points at Beth.

“Yeah, Cyclone is his name,” Alex told us.

“How’s that feel?” Spencer asked Anthony.

“I don’t know. I sprained it pretty good.” He could move it around, but it causes him a great deal of pain.

“Where’d you get these clothes?” Martha came out in a cute winter outfit.

“When I realized how far north we were going, we stopped to go shopping,” Alex told us.

“You can shop here?” I asked. If I knew that I would have bought another outfit a long time ago. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about animal fur getting on me.

“How did you know how to do that?” Spencer asked. Half of the town characters will walk right past you like they can’t hear you talking to them. Not everyone had phrases to say to you.

“I was here for 20 years, kiddo,” Alex smiles. I guess in 20 years, you learn to live in this world, not just survive.

“At least I got rid of that stupid hat. Now I got this stupid hat.” Anthony sighs.

“I think it’s cute, it makes you look fluffy and cuddly.” I gave him a side hug. 

“Everything about this guy says fluffy.” He grumbles.

* * *

“The Fortress looks like the last level.” Anthony looks down at the map to tell us about the new place he saw.

“Okay, so we climb that mountain and then we sneak in somehow.” Alex looks up at the intimated looking snow mountain.

“Yeah and then we steal the jewel before the brothers Kababik gets there,” Spencer explains the rest of the game plan.

“And then show it to the sun?” Martha was still unsure of what that meant.

“Sounds like a plan.” I nod.

“What?” Anthony shouted, making us turn to him. “I’m sorry. I think I missed the planning part of the plan. That last level almost killed us all. I can barely walk. Your grandpa beats the hell out of the wrong guy, or we get attacked by a polar bear, what am I supposed to do?” 

“I’m not going to beat up the wrong guy.” Eddie denies that he would ever do something like that, even though he already did.

“You are going to beat up the wrong guy! You’re not a good Bravestone! You’re too stubborn and pissed off, and you keep getting us killed.” Anthony stood up from the rock he was sitting on to yell at him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Eddie screams at him.

“Well, there was me with the ostrich and all of us with Switchblade.” I remind him. He rolls his eyes and waves his hands at me.

“And Milo...and I say this with all due respect sir…. is not a good person to be the zoologist. He talks too slow and by the time he gets to the point, you’re dead, once again, no offense.” He tried to be more respectful to the nice older man who meant no harm.

“None taken, and let me tell you why… because of my friend Bernard...” Milo was about to go into another odd story that most likely would have a loose connection to his point.

“You see?” Anthony points a finger at him. “You’re a thief who’s too neurotic to steal anything, Bethany’s a horse.” He points at Spencer then Beth. 

“All that is true, our group is a mess. But there is nothing we can do about that. We have to try something, right?” I cross my arms over my chest.

“I don’t know. All I do know is that we are stuck here again, we are running out of lives and my ankle is killing me!” He sat down on a loose rock and ended up falling over. 

“Anthony!” I ran to see him rolling down the snowy hill. If he didn’t have a bad ankle I would be laughing at him. 

“Fridge! Are you okay?” Martha yells down at him.

“Fridge!” Spencer screams.

“Yo, you guys got to see this!” He yells up to us. We went down to see what he was talking about. It was a river with water that was similar to the one surrounding the Jumanji berry. The water had the same green electric element to it.

“This water will help everyone get into the right body, so we can do this,” I explain to the group. Martha, Alex, and I sat on the side while everyone went to the cliff to jump into the water. They came out of the water confidently but ended up shivering when the air hit them.

“Goddamn, that is cold.” Spencer wraps his arms around Bravestone’s body.

“Oh man, it is freezing. What the hell, man?” Franklin ran out. 

“Yes!” Bethany hugs herself when she sees she was in Shelby’s body. “I missed you so much.” She whispers to her body. “Oh my god, you guys hi.” She smiles.

“Hey.” I nod to her before going over to Mouse. “Anthony.” 

“Hey, I’m back baby.” He moves to hug me but I move out of his way.

“You’re wet, stop.” I put my arms up in an X to show him touching was a no go right now. 

“You are cold blood sometimes. I’m freezing and you can’t share body heat.” He grumbled.

“Grandpa,” Spencer called out to Ming. 

“Yeah. What?” Eddie was brushing something off of his butt. The horse let out a neigh. “Milo?” Eddie looks at the horse. He let out another neigh as he nodded his head. “You should see the size of your dick.” He put his hands up to show his friend how big it was.

* * *

We gather in the cave for the night around the fire. Milo was outside because he couldn’t fit. “Damn, I never thought I’d be this happy to shrink.” Anthony smiles down at Mouse’s body.

“I have never seen anything quite like that before.” Alex saw a lot of weird things in his 20 years here.

“Oh my god, it’s so good to be able to talk again with words. Spencer, Hi!” She smiles at him. 

“Hey, Bethany,” He smiles back at her. 

“We have so much catching up to do. I want to hear about New York. But it feels like maybe this isn’t the perfect, like, moment.” She tilts her head towards the end.

“Right, like, later,” He nods a little too eager to not talk about New York.

“Later,” She smiles and rubs her hands over the fire.

“Better?” Martha rubs Spencer’s arms. 

“Yeah, much,” He smiles at her.

“I got hair, for the first time in 40 years. I got to tell Milo.” Eddie rubs his head as he walks to the entrance of the cave. 

“Take this apple for him.” I held out my hand, but Eddie wasn’t coming back for it. “I’ll take it myself.” I walk out behind him. 

“Be careful,” Spencer yells to us. 

“Yeah,” He waves his hand to say not worry. 

We walk out to see a bunch of men surrounding Milo. “Hey! Get away from that horse!” Eddie yelled. I took out my knives to throw them and take out a few of the guys.

“Freeze!” He points a machine gun at us. I throw another knife and it lands hit right in the barrel of the gun. 

I let out a yip when I felt a pain in my neck. I reach up to yank a tranquilizer dart out. “What the fu...” I felt myself get dizzy. I fell to the ground as everything went black.


	15. Exs and Ohs

There are some triggering sexual things in this chapter.

* * *

I wake up feeling so groggy that I can’t even open my eyes right away. “That was one fucked up dream.” I groan as I wiggle out of the warm blanket cocoon I wrapped myself in every night in my sleep. I found that I couldn’t move my arms. “What the hell?” I open my eyes to look up and see that I was handcuffed to a headboard that was definitely not mine. I wiggle around so that I was sitting up to find that I was in a black matching set of bra and panties. I look around to take in my surroundings. I was on a big bed that was covered in furs. The room was a mixture of gothic and medieval. All the furniture was dark and vintage. Weapons and animal skulls were hanging up on the wall. I lean my head back against the headboard, as my memory catches up to me. I got kidnapped with Milo and Eddie. I need to figure out how to get out of here, find some clothes and them. 

The door swung open and in came a large man with a wild beard. “Jurgen,” I gasp.

“Nice to know that you remember, love,” He slams the door shut. He took a seat on the bed by my feet. “Oh Connie, you always come into my life at the worst time, but I can never seem to be able to turn you away.” He cups my face and runs his thumb along my bottom lip. I tense up under his touch. I’m sure he didn’t earn the name brutal by being cuddly. “Would you like to hear a love story?” He lies down next to me.

“Do I have a choice?” I croaked out.

He let out a loud barking laugh. “I suppose you don’t, the story is about my first love. I notice a maid sneaking out of the castle at night. I followed her thinking I was going to catch a spy telling my enemies overheard secrets. But, no I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen playing with hyenas. So, what do I do? I woo her. I teach her how to defend herself. I give her my heart, my soul, and a throne next to mine with her hyenas at our feet. I thought we were going to last forever. But, no she disappeared in the middle of the night taking my heart and soul with her. I always knew she would have taken the hyenas too if they wouldn’t have made her easy to spot.” He gave Connie and his back story. He pops up from the bed, “As much I would love to continue where we left off, I can’t. You’re looking at a soon to be engaged man,” He puffs out his chest. 

“Well, it seems like I cause you enough trouble. I wouldn’t want to ruin things with your fiancé. So if you can uncuff me. I’ll put my clothes on and get out of your hair.” I wiggle my wrist so the metal hits against each other. 

“No, no, no it’s like I said I can’t seem to let you go. You’ll stay here with me as my hyena tamer. It's perfect seeing that my last one died.” He winked when he said, hyena tamer. “If you think about acting out, your thief friend will be punished.” 

“Where is Ed…Ming?” I asked.

“Like I’d tell you that?” He chuckled. I scream when he throws himself on me. He had a knee on each side of my hips with his hands resting on the headboard behind my head. I swallow the thump in the throat at feeling his body pressed up against mine. “I think we have time for a rump before my fiancé gets here.” He pushes his lips against mines roughly.

I felt my body shake and tears roll down my face as he forced his tongue into my mouth. He tastes foul like ale and morning breath. I wonder if this man ever brushes his teeth. His hands went down my stomach, but before they would get to my pelvic there was a loud knock on the door. “I’m busy.” He pulls away to yell. I pray to the Jumanji gods that it was something he needs to take care of right away.

“The Brothers Kababik are here,” A voice yelled through the door. 

Jurgen let out a frustrated scream as he got off of me. “It seems like we have to delay this even further.” He pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocked the handcuffs. “Put that [outfit](https://urstyle.fashion/styles/2470985) on and the guard will bring you to the dining hall. Remember one slip up and your friend is done.” He points to a chair that had clothes draped over it and walks out of the room.

I rushed over to the chair to put on the black long sleeve crop top that had two lace-up slits in the front that stop underneath the breasts. The pants were leather with a lace-up front slit skirt over it. I put on the knee-high strappy heel boots. “I don’t know how I would escape in these.” I curse the heels. I hope I was able to find the boots I came with. 

“Hurry up, I want to eat.” The guard yells through the door.

“You wait or I’ll tell Jurgen you made a pass at me.” I threaten. Not that it would mean anything, he was an NPC. He probably didn’t know how to do anything other than what Jurgen told him to. But, then again Jurgen was an NPC, and he seems to be able to interact with me more fluently. It was like he was actually reacting to me instead of just repeating phrases that he was programmed to. 

“Hurry up, I want to eat.” He knocks on the door.

I looked at the club that was hanging up on the wall. I could bash the guard’s head in with that. I was walking over to it when the door slams open and a brute walks in and grabs my arm. “Hurry up, I want to eat.” He drags me to a dining hall. He pulls me over to where Jurgen was sitting on a throne. I notice that Jurgen now has the Falcon jewel necklace on. The guard let me go to sit on a table and ate like he was starving. The hyena by Jurgen’s side jumped on me, knocking me to the ground. When it opened its jaws I thought for sure I was about to die in Jumanji but it surprised me when it licked my face.

“I see I’m not the only one who missed you.” Jurgen chuckled from his throne.

“Candy.” Her name came to me as I saw flashes of Connie raising her from a cub. 

“Yes, she wouldn’t eat for days after you left. I thought for sure she would die. She must have known she’d see you again.” He gave the hyena a few pats on the head. I sat down on the floor with her in my lap. I pet her as I felt the emotion that Connie was going through at being reunited with her beloved pet. It must have hurt her to leave them, especially with this man.

“The Brothers Kababik are here.” A guard led Bethany and Anthony into the dining hall. 

We stared at each other with wide eyes. “Brothers Kababik, I present Jurgen the Brutal.” A man bows as Jurgen gets up to walk over to them. 

“At last, we meet on this historic day.” He walks over to them with his arms out like he was going to hug them.

“Yes, it is so great to meet you, you’re Honor. If that be the Falcon Jewel upon your thick and meaty neck perhaps we should take it.” Bethany stares at the jewel that lay on his chest. 

“Today, we forge an unbreakable alliance. Your family will join me and land by land, we’ll take the world. So I ask, on this historic day, where is she?” He looks for his fiancé.

“Where’s who?” Bethany asks.

“Who are you talking about?” Anthony asked.

“Your sister, my soon to be bride,” He reminds them of their part of the trade. 

“You know what? I think that there’s been a misunderstanding.” Anthony told him.

“Where is your sister?” Jurgen asked again. 

“Which sister were we talking about? Debbie or….Brooke…. Or Sierra,” Bethany tries to buy them more time.

“Where is your sister?” He asked again. He was showing his NPC traits right now. Asking the same question over and over again until he got an answer he was programmed to respond to.

“She’s getting ready, back at the hotel. She’s just doing what brides do on their wedding day: Hanging with the girls, getting her hair done, mani-pedi.” Bethany sang out the last part as she said things that she loved to do.

He walks away from them. “If you’ve come here without your sister….” He grabs a machete from a warrior. “... I just might have to cut off your head.” 

I stood up and walked over to the dining table that had knives scattered all over them. The maids don’t do a good job here. Candy was at my heels. I passed her a piece of meat when I saw some guard glares on me.

“Oh no! No, no, no. Don’t.” Beth shouted as men shoved her and Anthony to lay their head on the table.

“So, I’ll ask one last time...” He raises the machete as I grab the knife.

“Getting a mani-pedi,” Beth screeches.

“Where is your sister?” He shouted.

“I’m right here.” Martha stepped into the room. I looked down at my outfit to see if there were any hiding places for the knife but I found none. I drop it in front of me and slowly gather others that were around me. Candy nudged my leg, so I gave her another piece of meat.

“Gwendolyn Hortencia Lewelda Kabaki is that you?” The man who presents Jurgen asked her.

“Yes. That is me. Now, please, O Brutal One, release my brothers.” She walks down the stairs. He gave a nod and the man let Beth and Anthony go. 

“And is it your intention on this day at this hour to wed Jurgen the Brutal of Zhatmire?” The man asked as she walked over to them.

“Yep, that’s my plan.” She nods.

“And is it your intention to mother his children and forge in blood this union with your family?” He said. Anthony, Beth, and I made a grossed out face by his choice of words. 

“Yes.” Martha nods a little freak out herself.

“Gwendolyn Kababik, known throughout the world for your beauty and cunning, and now you’re mine,” He looks down at her with a predator glint in his eye. A lady came and passed the presenter a note. 

“May I hold the Falcon Jewel?” Martha asked.

“Of course, my bride,” He knew how women liked jewelry. 

“Thank you.” She nods. I watch with pins and needles as she reaches out to grab it. 

“The Brothers Kababik has been delayed in Gorek. These are imposters!” The presenter told him.

“Seize them!” Jurgen points and his men grab them. 

“I forgot to tell you one thing.” Martha struggles in the warrior’s arms. “I have a boyfriend.” She said. Spencer comes in and bashes the men holding Beth and Anthony heads together before flying them across the room. Martha breaks free and tries to grab the necklace but Jurgen grabs her hand and flies her back.

I grab all the knives I could and jump up on the table to start throwing them at people. I turned around when I heard footsteps from behind. A man was running at me. I ran out of knives so I picked up a plate. Before I could throw it at him Candy tackled him to the ground and rips his throat out. “Oh shit, you really are Connie’s pet.” I jump down next to her.

A loud crash made me turn to look at the others. Spencer was under the rumbles of a pillar and Ruby was kicking ass. “Get out of here! I will torch you, bitches. I will literally burn your face.” Beth was waving a torch around to keep the guys back. Anthony was using the same method. 

I ran over to Spencer to help him. Candy followed me. “Hey, remember your little fri...” Jurgen was shouting at me when Spencer pulled the berry out his pocket. His face went from anger to fear. He walks over to his men, “I’ll meet the brothers in Gorek.” He informed them. “Kill them all!” He shouted before running out of the room.

“I think the berry is the key to killing him,” I said. From his face, I was thinking that was the answer, but it seems like an odd way to win a boss fight in a video game.

“Go! Go get him! Go get the jewel! Don’t worry about us. Just go!” Anthony yelled to him.

“You got this Spence.” I helped him up. He ran after Jurgen.

A nudge to my thigh made me look down to see that all the hyenas were surrounding me now.

“I’m the hyena tamer,” I remember the story that Jurgen told me. “Help them out.” I point at Beth, Anthony, and Ruby. They nod before splitting up to help defend the team.

“Whoa, the hyenas are helping us,” Beth screams in happiness. 

“I’m a hyena tamer!” I shouted as I grabbed a large knife from one of the dead soldiers and used it to kill some of his friends. 

Anthony pulls a stereo out of his backpack and plays Baby, I Love Your Way by Bob Marley. “Anybody want to dance with the bride?” Martha asks. Between her dance fighting, my knife work, and the hyenas, we were able to defeat this army in record time.

Beth pushes Martha out of the way to kick the last guy in the face. “We did it.” She smiles at her. 

“Let’s go.” Martha waves to them. We ran outside to search for Jurgen and Spencer. “Look!” She points up to the sky. Spencer was hanging from a blimp that was up in flames. 

“Is that Spencer?” Eddie screams. 

“Grandpa Eddie, you’re safe.” I noticed he was here for the first time.

“Oh my god,” Beth cried as Spencer was able to pull himself in the blimp. 

I held on to Anthony’s hand as I helplessly stared at the blimp. A neigh made me look back to see Alex riding horseback on Milo. “Where’s Spencer?” He got off the horse.

“In that blimp, fighting Jurgen,” I nod towards the blimp. I let out a scream as the blimp had slammed into the castle and large pieces of it were falling off.

“Spencer!” Eddie screams when the blimp slams into a mountain.

Milo let out a long neigh. “He says to get on his back.” Anthony points at Eddie.

“Who, me?” He points at himself. Milo nods his head while neighing some more. Eddie climbed onto his back and Milo took off.

“Oh, no,” I shout. Spencer falls out of the blimp while holding onto Jurgen. “Oh, thank god,” I put a hand over my speeding heart when Spencer grabs on to a rope that was hanging from the blimp leaving Jurgen to fall to his death. 

We turned our heads to see that Milo was running on the airstrip. “Oh my god,” Beth screams.

“What is he doing?” Anthony stares.

“What is he thinking?” I watch as it seems like he was speeding up as he got closer to the edge.

“Wait.” Alex put his hand up to calm us down. 

Milo jumped off and sprouted wings. He flew over to Spencer. “Oh yeah, Milo,” We cheer.

Spencer throws his grandpa the jewel. Eddie caught it and Milo flew them up over the clouds. “Go, Go, Go.” We were jumping up and down. A bright orange light beam in the sky as the foggy air cleared up.

“Call out its name,” Alex said.

“JUMANJI!” We screamed at the top of our lungs. A green light took over the land, blinding our vision. When it cleared, we saw that we were back on top of the snowy mountain. 

“We did it!” I hug Anthony.

“Yes! Yes!” He picks me up and spins me around. He let me go to get picked up by Spencer. “Let me down, damn it.” He hit Spencer’s back.

I laugh before pulling Ruby in a hug. “I need that song on my playlist. It saved my life enough time.” 

“That’s funny because I don’t want to hear it ever again.” She laughs. I laugh as I pat her on the back. I went around giving a hug to everyone.

When I heard barking, I looked over to see Nigel coming to us on a dog sled. “What are we doing here now?” Eddie points at them.

Nigel made a noise to get the dogs to stop. He got off the sled to walk in front of us. “Well, done intrepid adventurers.” He put his goggles on top of his head. “You have saved Jumanji, again. And now, with your permission Dr. Bravestone, I will take the jewel from here.” He looks at Spencer. He hands the jewel to Nigel. “I will protect it with my life and return it to the care of the elder at the Avian Province.” He put the jewel in his pocket. I bite my tongue, to stop from saying maybe screw tradition because it’s not working and instead put the jewel in a heavily guarded place where it can still see the sun. I had to remind myself that this was a video game. “And so your work here is done. All of Jumanji thanks you, and sadly, this is where we part.” Nigel put his hand out for the first person to shake.

“I don’t know what’s sad about it. I’m ready to get the hell out of here.” Anthony went to shake Nigel's hand, but Milo let out a few neighs. “What?” He put his hand down to stare at Milo in disbelief. Milo neighs again. “Really?” He walks back over to us as Milo nods his head. “Hey guy, you’re not going to believe this.” 

“What’d he say?” Martha asked.

“He says that he...” Anthony was going to translate but Eddie did it for him.

“He wants to stay.” Eddie looked over at his friend. He knew Milo could live longer here than in their realm, but he was sad for he just got his best friend back. Milo nods his head.

“He says somebody’s gotta stay to look after this place. And that he’s 75 years old and he just learned how to fly.” Anthony translated as Milo neighs some more.

“But, he won’t be able to get out.” Spencer understood the appeal of wanting to stay here, but it wasn’t a permanent desire at least it wasn’t for him.

“He knows.” Eddie walked over to his friend. “Oh Milo, I feel like I just got you back. Now I’m losing you for good.” 

“You’re not losing me, buddy. I’ll always be with you.” Anthony spoke for Milo.

“Being your partner is one of the best things I ever got to be,” Eddie told him something that should have been said a long time ago.

“He says, thank you.” Anthony translated.

“No, no, thank you, Milo.” Eddie hugged him. Milo neighs goodbye before getting a running start to jump and fly away. 

“Goodbye, Milo!” I, Alex, and Martha waved.

“Take care Milo,” Anthony yelled.

“So long Milo.” Spencer waves.

“Goodbye, Mr. Walker.” Beth waves.

“That’s my partner right there.” Eddie watches him go with bittersweet emotions flowing through him. “Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like Milo.” He kept his eyes on him until Milo was out of sight. I look over at Martha, Spencer, Beth, and Anthony. I was so lucky that I had four friends like Milo.

“Come on, Grandpa. Let’s go home.” Spencer wraps an arm around his shoulder to turn him around. “Hey guys, thanks for coming to get me.” He smiles at us.

“It was nothing. You would have done the same for us.” I shrug. Martha, Beth, and Alex nod in agreement. 

“You do it again, your ass is going to be stuck here, Spencer, because I’m not coming back,” Anthony yells on his way to Nigel. We shared a laugh. One by one, I watched them shake Nigel’s hand and the green light took them back home. Somehow, I ended up being the last one. 

“Cutthroat Connie, I will miss you.” I was about to shake Nigel’s hand when I heard a high pitch giggle. I look back to see a pack of hyenas being led by Candy. 

“One second.” I put up a finger before jogging over to them. I kneel in front of Candy. “I don’t know how this works. If Connie will take over when I go back home or if she’s gone until the next Connie comes, which hopefully will be never. So, whether you get reunited or set free I hope you find happiness. All of you deserve it after having to live under that asshole ruling.” I gave each of them a pat on the head. 

I walk back over to Nigel. “As pleasant as you are, I hope to never see you again.” I grab his hand and smile in happiness as the green light takes me back to Spencer’s basement.


	16. Take Me Back

I look down and ran my hands along my body. “I’m going to treat you to a long soak,” I promise.

“Is everyone okay?” Spencer looks us over. We each gave him a nod. “Grandpa, you okay?” He looks over at the only person that didn’t answer. 

“Yeah, I’m good.” The old man stares at the walls in front of him. “Holy shit,” He looks around the place. He couldn’t believe that all of that was real.

Martha ran over to hug Spencer. I smile watching as the couple laugh in joy about being back together. 

I grab Anthony by his shirt collar to pull him down into a kiss. I grab the back of his head as I slip my tongue into his mouth. “Alright, this isn’t an orgy. Break it up!” Eddie yells at the two couples.

“Sorry, I had to get the taste of Jurgen out of my mouth.” I pull away from him and gag at the thought of that guy.

“What?” Everyone screamed.

“He kissed you?” Anthony throws his hands in the air. “I hope you killed him good.” He points at Spencer.

“I poisoned him with the berry and he fell to his death, so I say it was pretty… well for lack of a better word, brutal.” Spencer shrugs. 

“Was it only a kiss?” Martha asks. 

Everyone held their breath as they stared at me. “Yeah, the brothers showed up in time before he could do anything else.” I smile at Anthony and Beth.

“Oh, thank god.” Beth pulls me into a tight hug. Everyone joined us, so we had a big group hug.

* * *

Martha, Anthony, Beth, and I were back at Nora’s to redo the meetup. We were waiting on Spencer and Eddie. Anthony was looking down at the chocolate cake in front of him. He put a fork full of cake up to his mouth before putting it back down. “Oh, hell no,” He pushes the cake away.

“More for me,” I grab it and put it in front of me. He watches me eat it like I was eating roaches. The bell above the door rang. I look over to see Eddie and Spencer walking in. “Look,” I nod at them. We watch with fingers crossed that Eddie would not have a meltdown.

Eddie stopped to look around the place that was once his. It was different, but very much similar at the same time. “You okay, grandpa,” Spencer asked.

“Yeah, a lot of good memories here,” He smiled when he saw a framed picture of him and Milo holding up their menus on the wall. 

Nora walked out and got the shock of her life when she saw Eddie standing there. “Eddie? Eddie, is that you?” She walks over to him.

“Nora. Hey.” He met her halfway. They sat down at a table together.

“Hey, guys.” Spencer kissed Martha before sitting down.

“Hi.” Beth and I waved. 

“What’s up, bro?” He fisted bump with Anthony. 

“How’s he been doing?” I nod to Eddie.

“Good, great actually, my mom said he’s back to being his old self, which is still grumpy but much more upbeat.” He smiles.

“That’s good.” Anthony nods.

“So, how the old married couple of the group?” Spencer playfully punches Anthony on the shoulder.

“We’re good. We’re good, right?” He looks at me for clarification.

“You don’t know?” Martha laughs. 

“I can never be too sure with this one.” He points his thumb in my directions. 

“We’re good.” I gave him a shove. “We have an apartment by his college, so any time you guys want to visit you can. Just don’t make too much noise when a game is on.” I nudge Anthony.

“Yeah and don’t go in the kitchen when she’s baking, you might lose a finger.” He nudges me back.

“Only if you stick your finger into the batter,” I wink at them. 

“I don’t know, it sounds dangerous.” Martha laughs.

“No really, you guys should come. Fridge is a local celebrity there. He can get us into the best places.” I pat him on the back.

“I wouldn’t say celebrity.” He shrugs humbly. 

“Well, now we have to go,” Beth smiles. 

“Yeah, we should schedule it around one of your games,” Spencer suggests.

“Oh yeah, I don’t think I ever have seen the Fridge in actions.” Martha nods eagerly.

“I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to visit all of you guys too.” Anthony gave Spencer a pointed look. 

“You guys got to come to New York too.” Spencer agrees.

“Yeah, I can’t wait.” Martha grabs his hand.

“This team, forever,” Spencer points down at the table.

“Forever,” Anthony nods.

“For eternity,” I sip my coffee. 

“Always,” Beth smiles. 

“Always, for eternity, and forever…” Martha said, not knowing what else she could add on.

We laugh at her cute awkwardness. “Yeah, let’s keep close though,” Anthony said through his laughter.

“Of course,” Beth nods. 

“One thing, can we all agree, let’s never go back there.” Spencer put his hands down on the table.

“I thought we already agreed on that.” Anthony points to himself.

“Yeah, you jerk.” I put a piece of cake on my fork to fling it at him.

“Alright, alright,” Spencer uses a napkin to wipe his face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stop it right here because if they do make a third one, I figure they would pick it up at the ostrich stampede. And, honestly, I like giving stories a tidy ending. 


	17. Epilogue Two

I let out a sigh as I stared up at the banner, HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY JENNY! “Why did you have to put my age?” I turn around to glare at my husband.

“Babe, I don’t see the big deal. I didn’t freak out when I turn 40 a few months ago.” He put the centerpieces on the tables.

“You’re a man, it’s different. With age, you get distinguished and alluring while I’ll get wrinkles and saggy. You’ll probably end up leaving me for a young hot zookeeper that handles cute pandas.” I sat down and lay my head face down on the table to wallow in self-pity.

“I wish I carried a tape recorder around with me, so when you get like this I could just play yourself back to you then you would hear how crazy you sound. Besides, the panda keeper is an old man.” He pats me on the back of the head. A van pulls up, so he went to show the caterers to the kitchen. 

“I don’t know why he had to make such a big party.” I lift my head. Instead of having a small party at our house like we usually did, he rented a large ranch. Everyone I knew was coming. I knew I was sounding ungrateful but I didn’t want to turn 40. All I asked for this year and every year from here on out was for no one to acknowledge my birthday that way I would be 39 forever.

“Hey mom, dad said to come and cheer you up.” Franklin sat down across from me. My 18-year-old son, who was getting ready to go to college, gave me a weak smile. As much as I love him, looking at him right now wasn’t helping. It made me feel older. It feels like yesterday I was 22 and holding him in my arms. 

“Getting old sucks,” I whine.

“40, isn’t that old.” I felt myself deflate when he said that. “I mean it’s not like you deal with old people stuff like sore joints or taking a bunch of pills.” He reasoned.

“I have stiff joints when I first wake up and my doctor wants me to start taking a calcium pill.” I put my head back on the table. 

“I don’t know why dad thought I could do this. I’ll get Connie.” He got up to get his sister.

“That’s what I want to see a teen mini-me to remind me what I looked like.” I got up to go hide in the barn filled with cows, who would allow me to go crazy in dread of getting old.

“I found you, mom.” Connie, my 16 years old daughter, cheers as she walks inside. She sat down on the haystack next to me.

“Here to tell me that getting old isn’t a big deal.” I look over at her.

“None, you don’t want to hear that. I figure we’ll sit together and talk about other things.” She shrugs.

“Did I ever tell you that you’re my favorite person in the family?” I put my head on her shoulder.

“No, but I figured. It’s not like I have much competition.” She shrugs. 

* * *

Everyone was eating dinner. At my table, there was my husband, daughter, son, my parents, and my sister and her family. “What is Spencer doing?” My mom asked.

I look over to see he was standing on his chair. He used his fork to hit the side of a beer bottle. “I wanted to make a little toast.” He waited for everyone to look at him before he continued. “I've been friends with Jennifer since we were in diapers. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that she is the best friend anyone can ask for. She used to sit there and watch me play video games for hours, just because she wanted to spend time with me. That’s what best friends do. They take an interest in your things even when it bores them to tears. Another thing best friends do is pull each other through dark times. Jenny has done that for me a few times. I would like to do the same for her, right now. I know that turning 40 is depressing for you. You used to say death before 40. That’s why I would like to give you some advice I got from a wise grumpy old man. Getting old is a gift, and sometimes we forget that. But it is a gift because not everyone gets to. So, live on for everyone that can’t.” He raises his beer in the air. Everyone cheered and raised theirs too before taking a sip from it. 

“Damn bastard, sure knows how to fix me up by making me feel guilty.” I sighed. “Hold my chair, so I don’t fall,” I told Anthony.

“What?” He asked. I got off my chair to stand upon it. “Oh,” He grabs onto it when he saw what I was doing.

“Thank you, Spencer, for that kick in the ass. You’re right. Getting old is a gift. Living as long as I have now, I got to see my son go to prom three-times, wins states, and graduate high school. I got to watch my daughter win blue ribbons in the science fairs and go on her first date. I’m lucky because not every parent lives long enough to see those things. I can only hope that god gifts me with more years to come so that I can see more of their lives and yours.” I smile as everyone clapped. “Thank you all for coming. I’m sorry I was been in a foul mood all night and a big thank you to my husband for making this happen, especially since he had to deal with my tantrums for doing it.” I smile down at him. 

“No problem, babe. Now get down, you’re 40 if you fall you might break something.” He teases. 

“Jerk,” I hissed as he helped me get down. 

* * *

Night came and almost everyone left. I was sitting around the fire with my friends. My parents took the kids home. “I can’t believe our daughter and your sons are graduating this year.” Martha sips her hot chocolate. 

“I know, I want him to do amazing at college and not need me, but I also want him to want me to visit every weekend.” I laugh. 

“I get what you mean.” Spencer nods.

“To think we put our parents through this pain. I was in such a hurry to grow up and go that I didn’t think about them having thoughts or emotions about it.” Beth smiled. She ends up marrying a man and they adopted three siblings: two sons and a daughter. The oldest boy was the same age as Frank. “Those 10 years flew by so fast. I look at Austin and still see that 10-year-old boy who was so scared to screw up because he thought we were going to send him back.” She sighs.

“I spend half of Frank’s life scared I was going to screw him up.” I shook my head at all the freaks outs I had. Especially, when he was an infant and I had no idea what I was doing. I called my mom so much that she moves in with us for the first six months of his life.

“I get what you mean.” Spencer chuckles.

“So, there's a reason I wanted to have the party here.” Anthony stood up.

“Why?” I tilt my head. I never put much thought into why he would pick here. I just thought he knew the owners being that he was their vet, so he got a good deal.

“Come on, I’ll show you.” He held his hand out. I took his hand and he helped me up. He took us to the horse stables. “Here, he is.” He points to a gray horse with white spots.

“Are you saying that he’s mine?” I stare at the beautiful animal in amazement.

“Yeah, he’s yours.” He nods.

I walk up to let the horse smell my hand. When he put his head down, I pet him. “What made you do this?” I look over at my husband.

“I saw the bucket list you made a few weeks ago, which was very dramatic by the way.” He rolled his eyes before going on. “On the list was making a childhood dream come true. I remember how you always wanted a horse.” 

“That is so sweet.” Beth clapped as she jumped up and down. 

“It is. Thank you.” I gave him a tight hug.

“Hey, is his name Milo?” Spencer read the nameplate that was attached to the door of his stable.

“Yeah, it seems fitting. He’s mellow just like him” Anthony reached out to pet the horse.

“This is amazing.” Martha steps forward to pet the horse. 

“Maybe I can get a goat or something and name it Eddie. And they can be best friends.” Spencer chuckles. We laughed harder at the joke then Eddie would have appreciated.


End file.
